


My Apprentices

by FantasyPunchPunk



Series: My Hero [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Chaptered, Chosen Ones, F/M, Multi, Reader-Insert, Slow Build, Some Humor, Sorceress Reader, kind of, really slow build, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:18:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 52,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8683720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasyPunchPunk/pseuds/FantasyPunchPunk
Summary: They've made it. Your champions have reached you and they've accepted their glorious burden. Now it is time for you to teach them. About their new responsibilities, their powers, their Country... and you.~"My fire. . . can still hurt people.""With the power you have now... that's always going to be a possibility."~He narrows his eyes at you and you smile when they briefly flash white. That smile drops when he says, "Black lace. Nice."You flush and gather your blanket closer around you as you throw a book at him.





	1. Gathered and Healing and A Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ICU: Sorceress's Unit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare yourselves, this is going to be a long chapter.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr for updates and bonus stuff on the story! fantasypunchpunk.tumblr.com/
> 
> Special thanks to Naoko_Kiseki for watching my back!

They barely have any time to gawk at their rapid change in surroundings, from shadowy jungle to orange-lit meadow, before the elder is snapping at them in a deep scratchy voice to hurry up. They follow her into a small vine laden wooden cabin with a rounded roof and port-hole windows and blink in incredulity as they walk through the door and through the entryway into a living space that is far too big to fit in that cabin. The old crone snaps her knobby but nimble fingers rapidly in their direction to bring them out of their stupor and gestures down to the couch she crouches over. The rest hang back as Daichi and Asahi rush over to the couch and lower Suga as gently and quickly as they can. The old woman catches it when Asahi winces, and looks at his arm consideringly for a moment before she returns her sight to Suga once the other two move away.

She watches Suga's chest rise and fall shallowly for a second before hobbling off to an adjoining hallway. The champions look to each other questioningly and flinch as a loud crash and the sound of glass shattering followed by enraged cursing floats to their ears from that same hallway. 

The old woman comes hobbling back out again, a multitude of glass bottles and small cloth sacks in her arms, and she sets them all at the foot of the couch before setting off again, to another hallway adjacent to the first and the entrance, sparing a glance at the still standing champions.

Her distracted irritation is perfectly conveyed in her voice even as she grows farther away, "Either sit down and stop looking like the Reaper himself will bang the door down any second or I'll kick you out of the house."

Cowed, the boys make their way to the earthy toned seating spread around the smallish living room that isn't already taken by Suga and plop down, immediately getting jabbed by their weapons, they shift around awkwardly to get them out from their sides.

In comes the old woman again, a stack of freshly stripped cloths in her arms and a small metal bucket hanging from her crooked fingers. She drops them next to the medicine components and grunts as she stares sourly at the far away ground. Just as Daichi is about to get up and offer his cushioned chair she raises her hand and snaps, a (f/c) light flashing at the sharp contact of her finger to her palm and a sturdy chair that one might put in a kitchen appears behind her.

She flops down on it with a tired sigh and Daichi slowly sits back down in his seat, mouth closing at the same rate.

Oikawa's eye twitches as his shoulders shake with restrained laughter.

Iwaizumi elbows him in the gut.

Eyes solemn, the old woman idly taps the top of each bottle as she inspects them, the glass clinking under her touch. Suga's breath hitches in his unconscious state and the Sorceress's eyes snap to him before settling back to the bottles when it haltingly continues its shallow persistence.

She finally settles on a short squat clear bottle with a green fuzzy spherical thing in it. She also picks up a long thin glass tube along a row of others in a specialized rack, that's filled with a liquid the color of a rotting pumpkin. She pours the liquid into the bottle and swirls it around until it changes to teal and the fuzzy sphere, tiny tendrils of whatever it is floating weightlessly, changes to a mint green, the entire thing sparkling demurely.

She grunts and swirls it a bit more before she tosses the entire mixture down her gullet, chewing the little ball.

All the champions faces twist.

The Sorceress swallows and turns to Suga. She lets her hands hover over him and plants her feet wide apart, despite being seated, and her hands begin to glow a light green instead of their usual (f/c).

The champions watch attentively.

She lowers her hands closer and closer to Suga and as she does they notice a toxic neon blue aura becoming more and more visible. The closer her hands get to it, the more it wiggles and writhes. When she's nearly upon it, it tries to shift away from her fingers but in a quick move she snatches it in her still glowing hands. It shimmies and bucks but she holds it firmly and begins to pull it up and away from Suga. The unconscious boy shifts and grimaces but she continues, never breaking pace as she slowly stands from her seat to keep peeling. At the last few inches, she yanks and Suga arches. He begins to sweat a little but the Sorceress is triumphant in the extraction and a corner of her lips twitches up.

"Bucket."

They all jump but Hinata is the fastest and holds it under her hands, the aura hissing and leaning towards him as he gets too close. The Sorceress squeezes it tightly in retribution and it jerks as it curls up, looking like a chastised child.

"Steady now."

Hinata nods shakily but his hands are mercifully still as she jams the aura into the bucket quickly and covers Hinata's hands with her still glowing ones as she utters a few charged words. The bucket rattles and there's a 'shwoomp' as the blue glow disappears.

Hinata's eyes widen. "It disappeared!"

"Yes, that's nice, dear." Her tone is one part patronizing and two parts sarcastic.

She takes the bucket from him and shoos him back to his seat, the orange-head flopping back with a pout.

The Sorceress mixes several things from a bottle into one, her seated silhouette taking turns being surrounded by every color of the rainbow and a shower of silver sparks and golden tendrils of smoke curling around her as she adds in a couple pinches of whatever is in the cloth pouches. She slips a hand under Sugawara's neck and gently lifts him as she presses the bottle of translucent red sludge to his lips. She tilts his head just so and his mouth cracks open and she pours it in, making sure not a drop escapes as his throat works.

When he finishes the entire thing she lays him down again and sets the bottle on the floor as his face begins to screw up. He starts to breathe harder but deeper and his skin flushes with color as he begins to sweat. The Sorceress's hands light (f/c) and she lays them over his stomach and on his forehead as she closes her eyes.

She breathes in and the glow on her hands gets brighter.

She breathes out and it gets dimmer.

The shadows on the champions faces get longer and shorter as the Sorceress's light fills and drains from the room. The glow getting more pronounced as night blankets the small cabin, then gradually getting less so as candles that are strategically set around the house slowly grow a flame on their own, casting everything in a soft orange-yellow light.

The old woman's brow furrows low over her closed eyes and she lets out a hissed breath through clenched teeth. "Come on, boy, work with me, don't fight me."

At the elder's soft murmur Suga's clenched fists and corded neck begin to relax. The old woman's hands glow brighter consistently and Suga's entire body starts to emit a gentle green glow.

A few more minutes of glowing and Suga's skin slowly begins to mend itself and his breathing becomes deep and even as he relaxes completely. The Sorceress draws her hands back as their (f/c) glow fades but Suga's green remains.

She grunts, pleased with herself, and leans over to sort through the left over bottles and pouches. She mixes together another marimo and pumpkin surprise and downs it. The champions watch in confusion until she spears her gaze at Asahi, who flinches and begins to sweat.

The old woman sighs through her nose and rolls her baggy eyes to the ceiling. "I won't bite, boy," She waves him over curtly. "Now get over here."

Hesitantly, he shuffles to her side and the Sorceress goes about removing the angry blue aura with the same process she used on Suga. It's only because Asahi is conscious that they're able to see how much it hurt, as Asahi's entire body tenses from the moment she grabs it yet he grits his teeth and doesn't make a sound, the Sorceress's frown softening in sympathy. The aura is disposed of in the bucket and the Sorceress uses the last of the ingredients set out to make a violet liquid that shifts between a dark blue and maroon with a lot less colorful flashes of light from within the bottle than the first time.

When he looks at it questioningly as she holds it out, she explains, "Your friend's potion was a lot more red because he needed rapid healing while also remaining stable. While yours will also help you to heal, it focuses on keeping your pain to a minimum."

Daichi's eyes harden. "Suga didn't get anything for pain?"

The Sorceress's eyes lock with his, if not just as hard then just as strong. "This young man's injury is not as life-threatening," She gestures at Asahi, then to the resting Suga. " _His_ is. Would you rather he not be in pain or last through the night?"

Daichi abashedly softens his rigid expression and body posture.

The Sorceress watches him as she keeps half an eye on Asahi as he drinks his potion and screws up his face, only for him to sigh in relief as his entire body relaxes with the pain swept away. Daichi keeps her gaze, only breaking it once when Asahi had sighed in relief. The Sorceress remains neutral.

Then she nods, eyes closed. "It's good that you care for your fellow champion."

"He's my friend."

She opens one eye and look at him with a raised brow, then sweeps her gaze over all the other champions, who have similar clear-eyed concerned faces, and nods, a small pleased smile coming over her lips. "Then that is even better. Makes things easier for me _and_ you."

Before anyone can ask about that she hobbles over and sweeps a hand over the empty bottles, each one vanishing in alternating (f/c) sparks. She stoops over and gathers up the strips of cloth, wincing and cursing as she slowly stands straight with a few creaks. She casts her eyes about until they come to rest on Oikawa, who jolts as her eyes hone in on him. He blinks a few times in quick succession as she walks over to him and loses his balance as she plops the cloth in his hands.

She points a crooked finger at him. "Your first training exercise," Oikawa straightens and his eyes flicker with nervousness. The Sorceress points down at the cloths. "Douse a few with cool water and keep your friend's temperature down."

Oikawa blinks.

"The potion broke his fever but his temperature will be quite high for a while still." She turns and starts to make her way towards the back of the cabin.

"Wait, but- That's all I have to do?"

She stops and half-turns to him. " _All_ you have to do?" She faces him fully. "Do you know how to summon your own water?"

He blinks again. "I can do that?"

The Sorceress is unamused. "Yes. You can. And you're going to have to. The river may be close but dangerous things roam at night. Of course, you're always welcome to make who knows how many trips."

Oikawa pales and shakes his head quickly.

"I thought so." She faces the back of the room once again and goes to the doorway at the center of the wall that's sectioned off with a green curtain. She pulls it to one side and gestures through. "Now, I'm sure you're all very tired. There're enough rooms back here for each of you so don't fight."

The champions look past her through the doorway where sparks of (f/c) light what they can see of a long hallway before the sparks fade into an orange glow in torches illuminating a multitude of wooden doors, each carved with a different pattern. Slowly their gazes go back to Sugawara who shifts in his sleep with a pinched brow that smoothes over once again when he's comfortable.

Oikawa is the first to move, plopping down in the chair the Sorceress had left and taking a piece of cloth from his pile into his hands as he sets the rest aside on the floor at his feet. He holds the cloth in a loose grip and closes his eyes, concentrating on summoning water to it.

Everyone's gaze goes from Oikawa to Iwaizumi as he sits on the floor by his friend with a sigh and sets his sword on the ground with a metallic clatter.

Oikawa spares a glance at his best friend before he focuses on his task again with a small pleased smile.

Bokuto plops down next, his war hammer making a large thud as it falls to the ground. "Ho ho! This'll be fun! Like a big sleepover, right, Akaashi?" He looks up at the addressed one as he crosses his legs and rests his hands on his knees.

With a neutral expression Akaashi sits down as well, unbuckling his dagger sheaths and resting them beside himself. "Sure, Bokuto-san."

Nishinoya comes bounding up to them with Tanaka right behind him and they both sit down to form a half-circle around Suga with the other two as they set their weapons down as well. "Hey, Bokuto. You still haven't told me all the prey you've hunted in Owlton," Noya grins. "By my count I've still fallen more than you."

Tanaka slaps Noya's back. "That's right! My bro here is the best shot in our village! The fastest draw too!" Tanaka puffs out his chest in pride for his best friend while the shorter boy rubs under his nose humbly.

"Ehh?! Really? Is that true?" Hinata bounces over as well, eyes shining with curiosity and admiration.

Kageyama isn't far behind, his eyes are intense as he drills both the older boys on their hunting techniques.

"Well, maybe me using a smaller bow helps me with my accuracy." Noya ponders aloud with his hand on his chin.

Bokuto grins mischievously. "I bet I could still out-shoot you, even with a bigger bow."

Noya grins too. "Ho? You're on." Lightning flies between the two as their eyes clash, metaphorically, thankfully.

"I wonder if I can use a bigger bow now that I'm older..." Asahi idly wonders.

The boys' gazes go to him.

Noya grins and tackles Asahi into a headlock. "Is that a challenge, Asahi-san?"

Asahi's eyes widen and he frantically shakes his head. "N-no! I was just saying--"

"Alright! At first light we'll set up some targets and have a three-way competition between me, Bokuto, and Asahi-san."

"No, really. I was just saying--" The five excited about the competition happily chat amongst themselves with Asahi continually trying to bail himself out. Even Akaashi and Iwaizumi interject into the conversation every once in a while as Oikawa tries to concentrate on summoning his water, not saying anything about the noise.

Overall they look very comfortable where they are.

Smiling at his friends from where he's still seated on the sofa, Daichi glances back at the Sorceress where she stands in the doorway, and shrugs.

The Sorceress grunts and snaps her fingers, a pile of bed things appearing in the middle of their circle. The champions look to her in surprise but she only sniffs as she makes her way to the doorway on the left side of the room. "Don't blame me if you end up tired in the morning." She disappears behind the (f/c) curtains.

The champions all look at each other, even Oikawa who had paused his task.

"Was that her being nice or...?"

Everyone shrugs.

~

The room is dark. The champions have all fallen asleep, sprawled in uncomfortable looking positions close together. Oikawa has a particularly pleased smile on his sleeping face as above him on the couch he leans up against, Sugawara rests comfortably with a wet cloth on his forehead.

The Sorceress is still awake. She bustles about with small projects in her workshop to keep herself busy, all the while keeping the remaining active crystal balls in passive sight. The moon has just reached her zenith when the old woman feels a disturbance. With a glance at the crystal balls she's up and swiftly breezing through the (f/c) curtains into the living room, uncaring whether or not she's loud as she marches to her entryway.

A few of the champions are sleepily watching her retreat in confusion and are promptly blinded as the lights flare to life in the small hallway adjacent and groan in discontent. The old woman gets to the door just as there is a polite knock that startles the champions into full wakeness.

"What was that?"

"Who's at the door?"

"Five more minutes Mom..."

Okay, almost full wakeness. Daichi and Iwaizumi roll to their feet and grab their weapons where they lay discarded. They both make their way to the entryway to defend their new teacher should they be needed but by the time they get there the door is already open and the Sorceress is tersely shooing the guests into the living room.

"Come on, let's go. The sooner I get you treated the sooner you can rest." Upon closer inspection Daichi and Iwaizumi notice that the young men around their age are battered and bruised, small scrapes littering their bodies wherever there is exposed skin. Well, except for the guy in the giant red see-through ball.

Without a word the two step aside so they can all enter the living room, and just plain moving out of the way for that one boy to roll inside, the candles littering the space flaring to life as soon as the Sorceress steps foot into the room. The champions that were lightly dozing groan again as their eyes are assaulted with even harsher light and reluctantly come to their senses.

The Sorceress vanishes into her workshop to gather the supplies needed for a minor healing spell for five and the two groups of boys cautiously evaluate each other from a distance in her absence. As the boys who were sleeping become more lucid they make more room for the newest guests who sit where they can.

The old woman sweeps back into the room and begins mixing things together with colorful flashes and loud pops, stunning the new arrivals while the other boys choose to study the intruders instead.

"Sorceress-san," Akaashi, who had been watching the one with the mohawk and the one with spiked hair, gently began. "These people are--"

"Ah!" Hinata, who is still very drowsy and was rubbing his eyes up until then, points at the tall blond with glasses with a surprised and miffed expression. "You're that guy from the marketplace!"

Tsukishima's eyes land on Hinata and for a second his surprise is clear as well before it melts into condescension. "Oh? I guess you actually made it then, Shrimp."

Hinata's face contorts and he sits up out of his covers a little more while raising quivering fists. "What?! Y-you wanna go?!"

"Shut up, you two." The tension is completely defused with the Sorceress's word. She's finished her mixture, a teal green paste, and motions to the one closest to her. "You, come here."

Yaku jumps when he realizes she means him and stands from his seat to go to her. When he gets to her she grabs his arm and curtly smears some of the teal stuff on a few cuts on his outer forearm that are particularly deep. He hisses and clenches his fist as the Sorceress watches closely to make sure it works properly. The stuff stings like a son of a bitch but Yaku looks down and watches as well as before his eyes, the cut stops leaking blood and seals itself up. The paste melts into his skin and not single thing is left to point out that he had been injured.

While Yaku stares at his arm in stupefied awe the old woman quickly treats the rest of his cuts and before he has time to tense up at the pain again she calls the next boy over. A hesitant Yamamoto stands and walks over as Yaku retakes his seat on the couch.

The boys hiss and flinch and whimper through their treatment with the sleepy group wincing in sympathy as the Sorceress had descended on them with that same salve just before bed.

The old woman, for her part, just blankly tracks the wounds on each champion with her milky eyes and almost imperceptibly sways in her seat. The only one who notices is Tsukishima during his turn to be cured, as he's the last to be seen to. He doesn't say anything at first, but when her eyes close just a bit longer than usual on a blink and she almost tips out of her chair, he steadies her by the shoulder. "Hey--"

"Mistress,"

The champions whip around. There, standing in front of the (f/c) curtain, is a tall pale figure with long dark red hair tied back in a loose braid and eyes the same hue. They wear a black yukata with bright red tiger stripes decorating the sides and black flats on their feet. They have sharp masculine facial features but the curve of their brow and lips are feminine.

 

(You'll have to imagine the yukata, sorry.)

  
The Sorceress opens her eyes and rolls them blearily to the person by the curtain. "Kaen."

There's a scolding but concerned tilt to their brow as Kaen takes in the situation. They gracefully sweep over to where the Sorceress is seated and gently ease her from Tsukishima's hold to theirs. They hold a hand to her forehead and frown. "My Lady, you are in no condition yourself to be treating others."

To the champion's surprise the old woman smirks before she sticks her tongue out at the red-head. "Ha! I already treated them all anyway!"

"Then you should find no qualms with getting some rest yourself."

"But Kaen--"

"They are all gathered and they are all safe. Anything you have to say to them can wait until you're in better health." They raise a brow. "Have you seen how many wrinkles you have?"

Oikawa looks to Akaashi. "Was that meant to be a joke?"

The old woman and the red-head ignore them and have a stare-off.

The Sorceress breaks first. "Fine. You are to care for them and protect them as best you can in my absence."

Kaen bows low. "Of course, Mistress."

The Sorceress disappears behind the (f/c) curtains.

Kaen turns to the champions and bows, not quite so low as they did the Sorceress, but enough to convey deep respect. "My sincerest apologies for not introducing myself earlier," They stand straight again and the strands of their hair not tied back by their braid brush against their cheek as they smile. "My name is Kaen, and I am (Y/n)'s personal servant and friend."

All the champions look confused.

"(Y/n)?" Daichi asks.

Kaen blinks in surprise and then frowns. "Did she not even tell you her name? (Y/n) is the Lady Sorceress." The champions gain a look of understanding and Kaen shakes their head as they glance worriedly back at the curtains the Sorceress disappeared behind. "At any rate, I am glad all of you are here," They smile sadly at them. "She hasn't slept once since the moment she picked each of you to be Yevoll's saviors. She vowed she wouldn't rest until you were all safe under her roof."

The champions stare at Kaen in stunned silence as they smile at them and wish them all a good night's sleep.

The Sorceress hadn't slept once in almost an entire month. For their sakes.

~

The next morning comes with the smell of Kaen's celebratory breakfast. The boy's noses guide them to the adjacent doorway in the entryway where Kaen stands with an apron around their waist as they flip a couple of crepes onto a serving plate. Hearing sniffing and growling stomachs, they turn and greet the boys with a smile.

"Good morning, young ones! I hope this meal is to your liking. The Mistress partakes of it on special occasions and I thought to extend this tradition to you."

It is. It is definitely to their liking and Kaen receives more than a few marriage proposals which they reject with a polite smile and a sense of pride. And soon breakfast comes to an end with the champions energized and ready for the day.

"Suga hasn't woken up yet." All the fuzzy cheer over a good breakfast comes to a somber halt with Daichi's words.

Kaen's smile also fades into a serious expression. "Yes. Your friend was very heavily injured so this is not unusual. I checked up on him earlier but..." They stand and make their way into the living room, some of the champions following closely behind them while some give them some distance as they linger in the doorway.

They stand over him and their eyes glow red. A few seconds and the glow fades. "Yes..." They smile. "He'll be just fine. He should wake up sometime between midday and sundown."

There are relieved smiles all around.

"The Sorceress cast a small healing charm on him after removing the ailment and he has subconsciously amplified it with his own healing power with no ill effects."

Asahi and Daichi look like they have a large weight lifted from their shoulders.

"Hey, speaking of Sorceress-sama, when is she going to be awake?" Hinata bounces on his toes as his hair begins to smoke. "I have so many things I wanna ask her and I wanna start training!"

He bounces a few moments more, everyone's eyes following his movements, until Kaen gently presses down on his shoulders to hold him still. "My Lady Sorceress has a lot of rest to catch up on. It may not seem like it but she worried greatly for all of you, to the point where she drove herself to the state you saw her in." The champions separately remember little things they noticed; her bloodshot eyes, the bags under them, her shaky hands and sometimes unsteady steps. "How you saw her is not how she is normally," Kaen tilts their head. "Except for her temperament. She is only slightly better when rested in that case." They stand and walk over to the green curtain at the back of the room. "She will be fine but we need to let her rest."

They pull the curtain aside and walk to the door directly across from it that's carved with the same designs as the front door, the champions curiously following. They open the door to a large meadow filled with soft looking grass and little flowers. A little ways out is a shimmering see-through (f/c) wall that curves up to enclose the entire area, house and all, in a big dome. Similar to the one back in No Man's Land.

The champions awe at it and the Enthusiastic Sextet, now including Inuoka and Lev, race out to get a look at it.

"Don't go beyond the barriers!" Kaen calls out. "They repel the more ferocious beasts!"

The boys explore their new surroundings the rest of the day with Kaen flitting between the backyard to check on some, the kitchen to make snacks, the living room to check on Sugawara's condition along with the few boys that come in to visit him from time to time, and the Sorceress's bedroom, just beyond her workshop, to make sure she is resting as comfortably as possible.

When Suga wakes up there are hugs (and tears, though they deny it) and Kaen prepares an equally as proposal worthy celebration dinner and everyone is finally shown to their rooms.

In the same hallway as the door to the backyard, there is as many doors as there are champions, again defying how much space there should be in the cabin, and two doors on each end of the hallway. The doors on either end lead to the bathrooms and are plain wood, but the boys' doors, the doors some of the boys had briefly seen when the Sorceress pulled back the curtain the night before, are decorated with beautiful carvings.

One is marked with a sun, with curving flames etched into the doorway. This is Hinata's room.

One is carved to look like the jungle, with flowers and leaves that look like you could reach out and touch them. This is Kageyama's room.

One has a fluffy cloud carved into it, with little droplets falling from it to the ground. This is Tanaka's room.

Another also has a cloud, but this one is stormy and dark with a lighter colored streak going through it. This is Nishinoya's room.

There's one with an hourglass, with sand in the bottom and top. This is Asahi's room.

One is carved with an up-close view of an ant, lifting a mighty leaf over its head with no trouble. This is Daichi's room.

One is carved with curious, almost vein-like lines. And in the light of the torches you can see how on one side of the door the gored lines shimmer and flash in certain places with something shiny and on the other side the lines are carved lightly, smoothly. This is Sugawara's room.

On another there is a large imposing cliff face with disturbed soil underneath it harboring a small defenseless sprout. This is Iwaizumi's room.

Carved upon one is a very familiar water spout that curls around something sharp looking. Oikawa correctly claims it as his before Kaen has the chance to say so.

On one a myriad of animals are depicted, all with their mouths open in some kind of call. This is Bokuto's room.

There is one that's filled with all sorts of nonsensical designs, some that look like fireworks or blooming flowers or uncontrolled pock marks, basically the types of things you might see behind your eyelids should you close your eyes too tight. And as they watch the designs shift and _move_. Akaashi flashes a barely there smug smile when the coolest door is revealed to be his, ignoring Bokuto who whines, "Unfair!" in the background (which sends him to his sulky corner).

One door has an inverted carving, with most of it carved out evenly into the darkest part of the wood. The parts left uncarved make a silhouette of an elongated figure with almond shaped eyes. This is Kuroo's room.

One has two different carvings. On one side is an etching of a ball pin joint doll with a helmet on its head and it holds a small spear. On the other is a carving of some sort of round oblong shape resting on a cushy pillow. This door leads to Kenma's room.

There's a door with a simple but detailed large eye, Tsukishima's room.

There's another with two hands clasping each other with a grip of camaraderie, Yamamoto's room.

One has captured a moment where leaves and a kite are tossed about in the wind, Yaku's room.

There is one that looks almost like a picture of Dryad, but the figure's skin has cleaner, sharper edges than the jagged lines of a Dryad's bark covering. This is Inuoka's room.

And one has nothing but a simple etching of a shield. That leads to Lev's room.

The one with the most peculiar carving has only two closed eyes. This is Yamaguchi's room.

Kaen explains that each room is warded specially to be protected from its owner's abilities, so that any time the champions wish to practice their powers without the Sorceress's guidance they can do so in their room. However they still have to be careful with their furniture as it's susceptible to backlash.

"What's backlash?" Hinata queries loudly with a raised hand.

"It is the direct repercussion of your power." Kaen explains. When they look at them and it seems as if no one understood, they go on, "Think of it like this. If the flame of a candle is your power, then the heat the flame puts off is the backlash. Does that make sense?" The champion's faces brighten with attentiveness and they nod. "Good. Now, picture this. Instead of a candle's flame representing your power, it is the fires of the kitchen furnace. Due to the room's enchantment if you stick something directly into the fire it won't be harmed. But, the fire poker you used to stick it in the flame with gradually gets warmer from the heat of the fire and it burns your hand."

They also explain that the charms in their rooms do not protect from anyone else's power but their own, so until they get the hang of their abilities, they can only use their power inside their own room or when the Sorceress is training them.

Now versed in the rules of their new residence, the champions go to bed. Kaen themselves retires back to the Sorceress's chambers to sit in a chair by her bedside to watch over her, getting up at random intervals to patrol the front and back doors.

The next day goes much the same as the last did with the exception of Suga joining everyone in exploring and Kaen making less extravagant but just as delicious meals. And the Sorceress still hasn't woken up, which Kaen tells them when they ask. That night Kaen drafts letters to all the Kings, except for Ersim, King of Arnev, telling them that the champions had arrived safely and are beginning their training. The letters would have to be looked over by the Sorceress first, of course, and only she can use the wax seals to send them, but Kaen wants to do whatever they can to help her in the smallest way.

Two more days pass in this manner, with the boys having fun being someplace new and exciting but wanting to start their training as soon as possible. Every time they ask after the Sorceress to Kaen they would reply she is doing better but still needs rest.

"Shouldn't we be more worried?" drawls Tsukishima after one such reply. "I mean, she is pretty old, maybe she died in her sleep."

"Oi, Tsukishima!" comes the reply of ~~the two reprimanding moms~~ Suga and Yaku.

"I can assure you she is not dead and is doing phenomenally better. I can see it even though she is asleep." A sly smile crawls onto Kaen's face. "I have a feeling you'll be fairly surprised by just how well she's recovered with a little rest."

The champions are confused by their words but pay it little mind.

That is, until the fifth day of their stay at the Sorceress's Keep just as the sun is beginning to set.

The champions are all lounging in the living room chatting and laughing with a few jibes being exchanged as the first few tantalizing smells of dinner begin to weave around them from Kaen cooking in the kitchen.

The creaking of a floorboard goes unnoticed in all the commotion by all except Yamaguchi, who spaces out as he faces the (f/c) curtain. Tsukishima follows his gaze and his eyes widen as he see the bright (f/c) glowing figure walking towards them. A few notice the two's silence and ask them what's wrong but their question is answered by the dragging sluggish steps that scrape along the floor.

The chatter fades into quiet as one by one they hear the approaching steps. Kaen is in the kitchen so the person coming has to be...

Not who they are expecting. The curtain is pulled aside by a petite hand. As one their gazes slowly travel up bare feet, a silky nightgown that just barely reaches the knees, a loose thin robe draped over narrow shoulders, mussed (h/c) (h/t) hair that lay over said shoulders, plush cupid's bow lips that gape open unashamedly in a yawn showcasing pearly whites, and full delicate lashes perched over lightly blushing cheeks as a hand comes up to rub at one of those closed eyes. They open and reveal a startling and vibrant (e/c).

The champions gape at the girl who is around their age in the doorway.

She glances around at all the stupefied faces. "What's for dinner?"

  **-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a better cliffhanger than the last one would've been, right? 
> 
> A few things to note; Kaen is neutrois and leans toward agender and their chosen pronoun is 'they', while Zenite was genderqueer and preferred to just be called by name, and the doors are very important! So if you skipped those, go back and read 'em 'cause you'll be sorry you didn't.
> 
> I feel very accomplished right now. I'm going to have a cookie.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	2. Beef Stew and Cheese Bread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're hungry and still tired a bit. You don't want to deal with this right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter before we get to the really good explanations.

  **-Reader POV-**

They don't say anything and just keep staring at you.

 

Okay, whatever. You shuffle past them where they sit on the couch to the kitchen. "Kaen! What's for dinner?"

They peek out the doorway just as you get to the entryway. When they see you they smile brightly. "Beef stew and spinach cheese bread, My Lady."

You grunt in confirmation and they move back to the stove as you go to the dining table and sit down, laying your head down on folded arms. You hear the champions come in behind you and sit around the table. Something occurs to you then. "Wait," You roll your head to the side to look at Kaen who keeps their attention on the food. "Where did you get beef? I haven't been able to go to any butchers."

Kaen stirs the large pot that was set on a flat rock you had enchanted with an easily activated heat spell. Its red glow holds your gaze as Kaen moves to the furnace and shifts the bread inside of it with a long paddle. "One of the female Dryads in the Forest of Life ensnared a cow that wandered too close to their territory thinking it was a male, and since they didn't want it to go to waste they contacted a few forest sprites and had them transport it here."

You hum sleepily, then spring up, outrage painted all over your face. "Wait! Did they drain it first? I've told them I don't know how many times that blood fucks up the runes!"

Kaen sighs and shoots you a reprimanding look. "Language, young lady." You huff through your nose. "And you should be more grateful that they sent us supplies. All of the mystical creatures know how busy you're going to be with training your apprentices and have made a group effort to try and help us as much as possible as repayment for all the times you've helped them."

" _We_ helped them," you correct, laying your head back down. "And I am grateful, but they need to keep in mind that they're not the only ones who send us supplies that way. It's discourteous to the other races and they're the only ones who refuse to remember."

Kaen hums. "I suppose that's true. But you can't blame them for not remembering when they don't have blood themselves."

"Then I'll blame the forest sprites for not reminding them." You exhale a harsh sigh that slowly morphs into a groan. "I'll redo the inscriptions in the morning--"

"Um!" You tilt your head up, and you and all the other champions look across the table to Oikawa, who has his hand raised with an incredulous look on his face. "Am I the only one who has no idea who this is?" He gestures at you and you blink slowly at him.

Tsukishima scoffs. "It's the Sorceress, idiot."

"What?! No way!" Hinata exclaims. "She was so old!"

You twitch. Out of the corner of your eye you see Kaen's shoulders shaking and shoot them a glare, them going still as the weight of your gaze settles on the back of their head.

"You guys--"

"Yeah!" Bokuto cuts Suga off. He cocks his head to the side as he looks at you. "If anything, she's the Sorceress's granddaughter."

A huge vein pops out on your forehead and Kaen snorts.

"I don't know, you guys. I thought it was her too." Yamaguchi looks around at everyone nervously, his eyes cautiously straying to you every once in a while.

By this point you just shut your eyes in an attempt to reign in your annoyance, but you crack one open as you feel someone lean closer to you.

It's Kuroo, lips pulled up into a half smirk as he stares down at you with lidded eyes. "Then why don't we ask kitten, herself?" He was seated directly to your left so he easily reaches over and boops your nose. "Who are you and what are you doing here, cutie?"

You glower at him. "First of all, I'm neither a kitten nor am I cute. I am a ferocious tigress." Kaen lets out a bark of laughter from where they're still stirring and goes completely silent as you whip around to glare at them. You sit up straight as you shoot a closed eye smile at the boys, your eyelid twitching violently. "Second of all, my name is (Y/n) (L/n)." Your smile slowly turns smug as you practically feel their stomach drop in realization. You open your eyes and sweep your gaze over the champions. "I am The Protector of Yevoll and The One Alone in Solidarity. AKA, the Sorceress. Nice to meet you."

They gape at you in silence. Kaen begins to chortle and this time their laughter doesn't annoy you.

"What's wrong?" Your smile turns feral. "Cat got your tongue?"

Tsukishima snorts. "Told you."

"But that's not--"

"How did you do it?"

" _Chotto_ , Kageyama!"

You turn to the only champion with facial hair. "Asahi." Said boy jumps and everyone turns to him.

"Dude, you turned (Y/n) into an old woman?"

"That's messed up."

Daichi clicks his tongue.

"Wait, no, I didn't--"

"Asahi's power," you interrupt before it can go on any longer. You lift a brow. "Have any of you actually considered what it was?" You look around at all of them and they have their eyes on you. "Or what any of your powers are, really."

"Ooh! Ooh! I have fire!" says Hinata.

"I have lightning!" boasts Nishinoya.

"I sneeze crystals!"  proudly sates Inuoka.

"Animals don't like me! They told me so," Bokuto morosely informs.

"I can move water," smirks Oikawa.

"I can move rocks, I guess?" Iwaizumi blasély questions.

"I make it rain," jokes Tanaka.

"I can fly," says Yaku.

"I turn into a shadow," Kuroo hums.

"I can move the puppets I make," says Kenma quietly.

"I can hear really well?" Yamaguchi asks.

"People collapse when I touch them," Yamamoto quietly stutters.

"I can see magic," blandly states Tsukishima.

"Bubble." Lev knocks on the inside of the red sphere, shrugging.

"Super strength," says Daichi.

"Healing, right? That's what one of the Dryads told me," says Sugawara.

"I can read minds." Everyone looks at Akaashi. He shrugs.

"I change color," Kageyama informs gravely.

"Then I, age, I guess? That doesn't sound very useful." Asahi looks at you and then around at everyone unsurely.

"Wrong," They all look at you. "All of you. Well, you're kind of right, but you're wrong."

"Dinner's done." You perk up and sit up straight as Kaen begins setting out bowls in front of all of you. They put down a couple loaves of spinach cheese bread in the middle of the table. "And there's no talk about magic over food."

"But-!" Several voices rise to object but you wave your hand.

"House rule. Makes the food taste weird." You bring a spoonful of stew to your lips and a warm smile spreads across your face as you hum. "Delicious as always, Kaen. Thank you." They smile proudly. "Can you do me a favor, though? I'm going to have to notify the Kings--"

"Already prepared, My Lady." Kaen clasps their hands in front of them. "I took the liberty of drafting a few letters to them while you were sleeping. You can look them over after dinner."

You grin at them. "You're the best."

"I am aware, My Lady. If you require anything else you know where to find me. And, if you would--"

"Oh, yeah, of course." You snap your fingers and a shiny red scroll capped with onyx drops into your open palm. You close your hand around it and glowing (f/c) lines slither up your forearm to your hand and into the scroll as it begins to glow red. Kaen closes their eyes as their whole body relaxes and floats a few inches off the ground, glowing the same red as the scroll.

The boys watch in awe and you watch calmly as Kaen serenely hangs suspended by the power of the scroll. After a few moments you relax your grip and Kaen is lowered to the ground. There's no outward change in either of your appearances but Kaen looks a lot more refreshed.

"There you go." You hold out the scroll and they take it.

"Thank you." You nod and they walk off toward the living room.

The champions turn to you. You keep eating, grabbing a slice of bread.

"You know, I always wondered why they never joined us for any meals." Kuroo comments off-handedly.

"Shush," You spoon up more stew. "I'll explain later, the food'll get cold."

  
**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

* * *

**~Bonus~**

You watch in fascination as Yamamoto and Yaku carefully balance a bowl of stew between them. In a feat of practiced timing, they push it through Lev's bubble and the opaque film sucks it in and reforms around it in less than a second. Lev catches it easily. 

"Huh. So that's how that works."

"It's cool, right?" Inuoka asks as he passes a slice of cheese bread through to Lev.

"It always looked kinda weird to me." Tsukishima nibbles on a bit of his own bread.

Lev shrugs indifferently and gulps down his bread in one bite, choking a bit until Yaku passes through a glass of water.

You stare at him, eyebrows furrowed. "But how will he get the spoon?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone had asked for a list of what everyone's powers were so I did that, and I'll explain their real powers either in the next chapter or the Sorceress will explain to each of them as she trains them.
> 
> Also, Lev's bubble is a strange and mysterious thing. It always bothered me a bit on how he was able to eat so that's why I put in the Bonus bit. The bubble lets in things of sustenance so Lev can, you know, keep living. Unfortunately that doesn't always apply to what it's contained in or what it can be eaten with, forks and knives can be weapons too, so it's a learning process, lessons punctuated by food smeared on the outside of Lev's bubble that he has to peer around until either someone cleans it off for him or it gets rubbed off by him maneuvering around.
> 
> aND ANOTHER THING. I love you guys. Just wanted you to know. :)
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. ;)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	3. Acceptance and Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wish I still had good dreams. Then I wouldn't be so scared to go to sleep.
> 
> -From the diary of a young Sorceress.

"Alright," You and Kaen walk through the green curtain and stand to either side as the champions filter through into the hallway that leads to their rooms. "Everyone go stand in front of their doors." They stare at you blankly. "It sounds stupid but just do it." With a few shrugs they move to do as you say. "Now look at your carvings." They look at the doors carefully. "If you notice, you'll find hints of your power, what you think it is, in the picture."  
  
"I see it!"

"Oh, that's cool!"

"Could you have made mine anymore obvious?"

"Um," Yamaguchi looks back at you. "Mine doesn't look anything like my power."

Kageyama glares at the depiction of the jungle on his door. "Mine doesn't either."

You smile and cross your arms. "That's because yours show your _true_ power. All of yours do, actually."  
  
Daichi turns around. "Wait, what do you mean true power?"

You step forward where everyone can see you if they want to. You hold out your hands and they glow (f/c) as the same color miasma drifts up in front of you. A small figure of a person appears in the smoke. The champions turn as they notice the glow.

The little figure curls up in pain as it emits its own glow and one of its hands shoot out as the glow disappears from around it and flies out of its hand.

"When your power first revealed itself, whether by emotional duress or some form of life preservation, it manifested as its simplest form." The little person messes around with its energy happily. "The easiest to control and the least energy consuming."

The figure disperses its energy and moves to sit down cross legged. The energy begins to glow around the entire figure again.

"But, that's only the least you can do with your power." You smile as you cause the illusion to change.

The little person stands up again as the energy disappears and leaps into the air where it flies around for a bit. It lands, then wavers for a second before it vanishes. It reappears and raises its hands above the ground and a small leafy plant sprouts and grows with the figure's coaxing movements. The plant fades and the figure crouches. It shifts until it spreads its arms as wings and the figure flies up as a bird. The bird morphs back into a little person and it bursts into flames. It's not hurt though, it actually flexes boastfully then begins throwing punches with balls of fire shooting from its fists.

The (f/c) light of the projection reflects in the champions' wonder filled eyes and you grin up at it with pride. This is what they would become one day.

"With a little training you can learn how to control it and maybe even figure out how to use it in ways I could never teach you." You disperse the illusion and shrug. "Of course, that's only if you want to."

Yaku furrows his brows. "Wait, what do you mean by _that_?"

"Well, I..." You look down and rub your elbow. Kaen walks over and rests a comforting hand on your shoulder, giving you a soft smile. You look back down and sigh.

They address the champions for you. "None of you really had a choice in gaining powers. And (Y/n) regrets that she couldn't really give you a choice." They move their hand to your head and ruffle your hair. You have bed-head anyway, no big deal. "But there is a good reason."

You look up at Kaen and they nod with a somber face.

You take a deep breath. "When I was seven, I had a dream. It was a nightmare, really." Kaen smoothes a hand over your hair a few times. "I'll spare you the details but it was about a horrific, bloody, tragic accident. I woke up in tears and it took hours for me to get back to sleep, even with comfort. The very next day I was tired and twitchy so I decided to take a walk out in the village..." You take a shaky breath. "And it happened in front of me. My nightmare came true. It took a long time for me to get over it and I still have that dream sometimes... But a few months after that I had another dream. Just as bloody and tragic as the last. I was terrified for days, refused to step foot outside because I _knew_ it would happen again. But when I went outside, thinking it was over, that I wouldn't have to see it, everything looked like it did in my dream. Every blade of grass, every gust of wind, including the one that blew a carpenter off a very high roof..." The champions wince and you smile sardonically. "I screamed and held out my hand... and he stopped. He just stopped falling, wrapped in (f/c)." You rub your arms vigorously and take another shuddering but steadying breath. "Later, Stella, the one who taught me magic, told me that my dreams were how my magic chose to manifest. And that they were warnings of what could come to pass. I found out on my own that they are definite." Your face hardens. "They always come true unless I interfere directly."

"Prophetic dreams," Akaashi murmurs and you nod.

"I never get shown something unless I can help. And eventually I began helping everyone I dreamed about. If I could get to them on time, I helped. And the more I practiced my other magic the more people I dreamed about and saved." You let out a bashful but proud smile. "That's how I became 'Protector of Yevoll'."

"So what does this have to do with you giving us powers?" Kuroo asks, not unkindly.

Kaen is full out hugging you at this point because you're shaking so bad. "I had a dream... One unlike any I've seen before. There were purple eyes surrounded by black flames, and they were laughing. They said... ' _Your precious Country will be mine._ '" Kaen looks down at you but you keep your eyes on your hands that clasp your arms. "The voice was so cold but there was so much malicious intent..."

You shake a few moments more, everyone silent as they process.

You stand straight when you finally gather yourself but keep your eyes down. "But none of that matters." You look up at them. "This is your decision. If you want to go back to your normal lives I completely understand. I can take back your powers and take you home, you won't have to worry about going against any evil and I'll protect you just as fiercely as everyone else in Yevoll." You narrow your eyes seriously. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"I want to." The reply is instant and you look to Sugawara. He was looking at his door and running his fingers over the shiny veins. "I don't know about the other kingdoms, but I've seen the pain the people of Arnev have to endure everyday." He looks at you, hand still on the door. "If I can relieve them of it then I'll gladly take it on as my own and if it goes against this person's evil plans then all the better."

You smile. "Even if it didn't go against someone's diabolical plot, we'd still help them."

He beams at you.

"We're in too." Daichi and Asahi are smiling at you too. "We want to help you and Yevoll. Besides, it's not like we can go back to Arnev."

You blink at them, then look at Sugawara who has the same bittersweet smile, then to Kaen. "You didn't tell them?"

Kaen winces. "I meant to."

Daichi frowns. "Tell us what?"

You look to him, occasionally flicking your eyes to the other two from Arnev. "There's no way I would've let you go back to Arnev." You scowl, eyes distant. "That Ersim is control _and_ power starved, even if I revoked your powers if he somehow managed to get ahold of you..." You shake your head, not even wanting to think about it, and shoot three of them a reassuring smile. "You would be sent to Pnas if you choose to give up your abilities. That's where I sent the rest of your families when I had the Dryads spirit you away."

Suga drops to his knees and you fretfully make a few quick steps toward him but stop when he says, "That's where they are? I thought the King had taken them into custody."

Your heart immediately crumples in sympathy and you kneel next to him as you put a hand on his shoulder. "That's right... You were still there when I had Daichi's and Asahi's parents moved. I'm so sorry. I couldn't risk getting word out to you or anyone they knew in fear of Ersim somehow getting a hold of it. Even sending the Dryads was very risky." You tilt his chin up to make sure he's looking right at you before putting your hand back on his shoulder. "But your parents _are_ safe." You look around at all of the champions. " _All_ your parents are safe. I know it's only going to be a matter of time before the people of Yevoll realize they're getting saviors and who exactly those saviors are, so I did some planning before that could happen."

You smile. "As soon as each of you left for a different castle, I asked the King of your kingdom to harbor your family," You looked to the Seijouin champions. "Ah, except for you two. I asked Baxy if he could harbor your families as well as Bokuto's and Akaashi's so they're in Owlton."

"(Y/n) arranged for all of them to be protected and provided for under no cost to the kingdoms but herself," The pride is just dripping from Kaen's voice and you pout as you flush in embarrassment. "They will all be cared for in the lap of luxury for the rest of their lives."

All the champions stare at you in astonishment and you shift uncomfortably before you cave under the pressure. "Well! When I help magical creatures they just kinda show me where these huge mountains of treasure are and when you can magic up anything material you want you can only spend so much of it on food before you run out of room for it! Your families will have much better use of it." You look up at them. "And it's theirs, and yours, to keep even if you don't want to take up the mantle of Yevoll's Saviors."

Sugawara's hand comes up and clasps over yours where it lies on his shoulder. He smiles at you when you look up at him. "I still want you to teach me. You saved my life, and even if you didn't I want to help the people of Arnev."

"Yeah," Daichi says confidently and Asahi nods weakly but surely behind him. "We're here to support you, Sorceress."

Your heart lurches with the reminder of what they said on Fool's Pass.

One by one they all heartfully agree and promise to help you, even Tsukishima in his own insincerely mean way.

Tears begin to rise to your eyes unbidden, and at the sight of them Sugawara panics and holds you at arm's length. "Whoa! Hey! Why are you crying?!" You can't help but chuckle as you see all the boys go slightly stiff with equal panic out of the corner of your blurry eyes.

"Sorry, I- just- _!_ " You sniff and slump, letting Suga's grip hold you up as the tears slip free. "Thank you all, so much..."

You don't see it but there are nineteen fond smiles aimed at you that say, _Anything for you._

And a single teary one that says, _She's growing up so fast!_

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another couple of questions answered! Hooray for explanation chapters~!
> 
> The next one will take place right after this one. I broke it here to preserve the flow.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading guys! I love that everyone's having fun with this. And I haven't even revealed half the mysteries yet! OOOOhohohohohohohoho~! ^o^
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	4. Soul-links and Careful Guidance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The soul is a curious thing that is made up of who we were, are, and who we will be. A fraction of it decides our personality, strands overlapping that decide whether we are shy or brave or reckless or bad tempered. If one of these strands that make our traits happen to match with the strand of another person, you are connected to each other. The more strands in common, the stronger the connection.
> 
> -From the Grimoire of Old.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *It's a Japanese superstition that your happiness escapes through your sighs, or something along those lines.

When you recover Suga goes to stand back by his door and you stand up to give each of them a handshake that binds them to you as your apprentices while Kaen stands back and watches.

"It might seem a little weird but by doing this I can see how you channel and manipulate the power in your body and whether or not you're doing it correctly. And, it creates a link between us strong enough that I can communicate with you like I did with Asahi and Tsukishima."

Akaashi looks intrigued. "So that really was you speaking into Asahi's mind?"

"Wait, _that_ was what that whole thing was about?" Oikawa looks back and forth from Asahi to Akaashi. "You were talking to the Sorceress directly?"

"Asahi-san was the one who could talk to her," Akaashi informs calmly. "I could only hear that there were two voices in his head. But I guess you did talk to me through him for a while." He turns to look at you and the rest of your apprentices do the same.

You sigh. "O-kay. Impromptu magic lesson number one." _**What I am doing now is called soul-link communication.**_ All the boys except Akaashi, Asahi, and Tsukishima jump as your voice echoes in their minds. You smile a little. "That binding handshake earlier let me plant enough of my magic in you to form a non-natural soul-link with all of you."

A few of the boys blush but only Bokuto was ~~dumb~~ brave enough to sway from side to side a bit with his hands on his cheeks and say jokingly in a high-pitched tone, "(Y/n)! You perv~!"

Kaen looks at him in confusion while you stare at nothing, unamused.

And then Kuroo pipes up, batting his eyes at you while hunching to appear smaller. "You didn't even kiss us before you _planted_ your magic in us!" He smirks, trying not to laugh. "You have to take responsibility and marry us!"

Unable to help yourself, you smirk back and hum low in your throat as you sweep your gaze up and down his form from under lowered lashes. He and all the other apprentices go still. "Could any of you even handle that, I wonder?" you purr.

Oikawa's hand shoots into the air before you can even try to clarify what you wonder they could handle. "I would very much like to try!" he seems to be game for anything you're offering. A furiously blushing Iwaizumi elbows him hard in the gut.

You snort and roll your eyes as you continue where you left off. "A soul-link is formed naturally between two people who have similar personalities." You look from Tsukishima to Asahi. "That's how I was able to speak into both of your minds before bonding."

Those close to Asahi look at him then to you. And those who have known Tsukishima for more than three seconds look to him then you. Then they all squint at you.

In response you turn away and sniff before saying, "You don't know my life."

"But wait," Yaku looks into the middle-distance in contemplation. "When did (Y/n) talk to Tsukishima?"

You see when said boy's eyes dart to you and you look back at him impassively. If he's going to get along with his fellow apprentices, he couldn't lie to them.

He sighs. "In No Man's Land, just after those things began to chase us," He mumbles just loud enough for everyone to hear. "She told me that we had to run and not fight."

Satisfied with the truth, you join in to help. "In his defense, if he had to stop and explain that there was a voice in his head telling him that, you all would have died." Everyone that came from Sefarl gapes at you in wide-eyed horror. You shrug. "Well, it's true."

"Then why didn't you tell us when we made it to relative safety?" Yaku looks at Tsukishima with hard eyes.

"I had my suspicions on who the voice could be," He glances at you pointedly. "And if I was right I knew I could bring it up then, and if I was wrong I could still bring it up then." He snorts. "It's not like I intended to take it with me to my grave."

Yaku's face screws up to one side. "Well, of _course_ you wouldn't. But still!"

You and Tsukishima huff a sardonic breath of a laugh at the same time then look to each other in surprise.

Inuoka looks between the two of you with big eyes. "Okay, _now_ I see it."

"Um," Everyone looks to Asahi and he continues after scratching at the back of his neck nervously. "You said that aging isn't my ability. Does the soul-link have anything to do with what it really is?"

"Oh no," You shake your head with pursed lips. "No no no. The soul-link thing is completely separate. But I guess I should start explaining your powers now that you aren't giving them up," You put a finger to your chin in thought and then point to each of them with a stern look when something occurs to you. "And I'm only telling you what you're possibly capable of doing in the future _after_ a ton of practice! So don't get any ideas in your head that ' _maybe I can try this now_ ', nope. Don't try it."

Hinata begins to pout angrily. "That's no fun! I want to try everything I can possibly do as soon as possible! Can't we try whatever it is in our room?"

You level a harsh glare at him. "No! Not even then!" Hinata flinches back and you notice some of the other apprentices do as well at your reprimanding tone. You sigh. "Look, someday, maybe, sure, I'll trust you guys to experiment on your own with this, but your second aspects, the true definition of what your power is, require a lot of concentration and energy and if you put in too much or too little you could end up seriously damaging yourselves in an irreversible way or..." You close your eyes and pinch the bridge of your nose with another sigh. You don't want to scare them but they have to know the consequences. "...Or you could burn out so much of your energy that you'll become an empty shell."

Everyone goes really pale.

You sigh again, heavily. " _That's_ why I have to keep an eye on you guys while you're training, okay? What you've been doing so far, your main aspect, is fine, and after I get a better understanding of your limits I'll let you push the boundaries there but until I give you explicit permission to test out these abilities on your own, your best bet is to come to me and tell me you want to train. It's for your guys' safety."

There was a heavy moment of silence as you let all that sink into their heads.

"Now, with all that in mind, is there anyone that still wants to know what the full extent of their abilities is?" Nobody breathes a word. The phrase ' _burn out until you become an empty shell_ ' ringing in their ears. Well, you definitely scared them. Great. You sigh yet again. At this rate your happiness for tomorrow will escape too.* "Then how about I just tell you all this before we all turn in for the night?" They all look up and give you their attention so you shoot them a small tired smile. "' _You can't get something from nothing_ ', have any of you heard this before?" There are nods all around. "Well, all the powers that you have, with a few exceptions, I have as well. What activated them _was_ a bit of my power, after all. So if you ever think that there's no one in the entire world who can understand you, you're wrong." You smile. "You've got me."

"You're so reliable, (Y/n)."

You sock Kaen in their sarcastic-ass shoulder. "Shut up. Good night, you guys," You wave over your shoulder at your apprentices as you head out of the hallway. "We'll talk more tomorrow if you want." You walk out of the curtain with Kaen following after you.

When you make it to your room you plop onto your bed with a sigh. Kaen watches you for a moment from the doorway before they make their way to your bedside. They place a hand and a knee on the mattress as they half climb on before they change. Their yukata stretches and molds to their body, leaving only their glowing red eyes visible. The fabric bulges and crumples as their body bends and cracks. The last change is the red and black fur that grows from their corresponding places on the fabric's pattern and the rounded black ears and red and black striped tail.

The black tiger with a red striped pattern over its face and sides flicks its ears as it settles into its form and then turns its eyes on you. Even without being lit from within by magic they glow in the gloom of the room. And even without being able to express human emotion you see the question in them clearly.

You sigh and lie back, opening your arms. Kaen crawls into them promptly and curls their warm body around yours.

"I'll tell them eventually, Kaen. Just... not now."

They look up at you and the question in their eyes this time is clear as well, but you don't have an answer for it so you hug them tighter and close your eyes.

The dormant fluttering of different magics at the edge of your senses lulls you into what felt like the first relaxed sleep since the nightmares of purple eyes first started.

 

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More explanations~!
> 
> So that's how the Reader got her powers and how this whole thing started, with purple eyes surrounded by black flames. But who is this Stella person, you say? I'm not going to tell you! Ahahaha! I will later, though, just have to story up to that point first. And what the heck is Kaen?! That will be revealed much sooner, I hope.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	5. A Curse and A Blessing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arnev is seriously messed up, man. You have no idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long one, be warned.
> 
> Merry Late Christmas~! I wanted to have this out on Christmas but I passed out after a chicken dinner and typing and editing took a lot longer than I expected. But it's here! Yay~!

When you wake up there's sunlight streaming through the thin curtains on your window and Kaen is gone, but there's a tray full of some delicious smelling something on your nightstand. You only spare it a long enough look to determine how to eat it before you scarf it down and begin getting ready for the day.

You throw on a loose blouse and a leather underbust corset over the top of it and a pair of long loose pants. Skirts are a pain and a hindrance, they could burn in the worst hell for all you care, someone would have to fight you to get you in one. You tie up your hair in a simple low ponytail with a piece of leather cord. Most magic practitioners wear their hair short, very short, like barely to their ears, so that they can better feel the magic flowing around them with every part of their body. But you've found that when you wear it longer you can use each strand to store emergency reserve magic and it's come in handy more than once. The only downside is you have to give your hair extra care and attention because the condition of your hair affects the condition of the magic stored in it. And that's even harder to do because magic has a tendency to dry it out and make it frizz up.

You stand looking at yourself in the vanity mirror Kaen insisted you get. Maybe you should cut your hair? Nah, you don't have time for it anyway.

You go straight into your workshop and get to work. Your sleep had put you behind by a few days but you had done so much during the time you waited for the boys to arrive that everything should be fine. You have around fifteen crystal balls, one for each kingdom and a few more for the lands around the borders, that are constantly looking for any trouble that needs your attention. You briefly touch each one and information bleeds from them into your fingertips. You contact a few magical creatures that are closest to the problems and using a few favors and promising to owe a few in return, the situations are quickly resolved.

Except for the ones in Arnev. That kingdom always requires the greatest care when lending a hand. If Ersim ever caught word of what you were doing without his jurisdiction, he would have the perfect excuse to put you under arrest and you would be just like every one of his 'court magicians' he claimed to have and be another tool under his belt to help his oppressive rule. Luckily the people of Arnev hate their King just as much as you do and don't breathe a word whenever you help them. And they know it's you because whenever you send a magical creature in your stead you make sure they have some hint of your color somewhere on them. They're oddly afraid of them otherwise, you suspect Ersim had somehow convinced a few individuals to help him but every creature you spoke to about him hissed and spat at his name in disgusted contempt so you have no idea how he's doing it.

You walk over to a wall where a large oval silver mirror hangs. Suspended over the frame with little sparks of attraction magic are ores of different kinds, still implanted in a bit of rock. You turn a few of them slightly and then push one in so that it sticks to the frame. Your reflection fades away as an image begins to coalesce. It's completely black except for two dimly glowing red dots, eyes. Different than Kaen's because theirs still has the distinction of a pupil, whether slitted or rounded, when they glow but these are just two little beady dots.

You know if there was any light you'd see greyish-green or greenish-grey bumpy skin that stretches over unattractive disproportioned features that include a pronounced brow and chin and sunken eye sockets. The teeth would be yellow-brown and crooked where they didn't hang out over the lips. You would be seeing a troll.

Despite their looks, they are terribly sweet and some of the best helpers you have. And even with their huge statures covered in natural armor and scratchy booming voices they are the greatest spies you have ever seen, moving silently and quickly underground. Their only weakness is that they can't go above ground in daylight or they turn to stone, so you do everything you possibly can to make sure they only go out at night.

The little red circles turn into waxing crescents. " **Lady Witch, how are you? We haven't heard from you in a few nights.** "

So polite but so loud.

You smile without showing a hint of your auditory pain. "The champions arrived and Kaen forced me to rest once they got here."

" **Oh? And how are they? Did they travel well?** "

"A few scrapes but nothing I couldn't patch up," You grin gleefully. "They accepted my mentorship."

" **All of them?** "

"All of them."

" **Then that is wonderful news indeed.** " The troll's voice gets even deeper as he lowers it. " **But not the reason you called, I suspect?** "

Terrance really does know you too well. "I wanted to ask if you had heard anything during my absence."

There's deep sigh and the eyes disappear for a moment. When they return they shine with sadness. " **Things are not getting better, (Y/n).** " Your heart speeds up at the use of your name. Magical creatures usually stick to titles unless they really want you to listen. " **The soldiers' cruelty under _Ersim's_ name has not abated and the humans' sadness and despair under their ruler grows every day. We give them food and rare ores when we can but the next night we visit everything has been stolen for Tax. My guess is this Tax works for the King.** "

"He does." You don't bother to explain the complexities of taxation on the citizens. It's stupid and was outlawed by Rif when he was in the prime of his rule. The other Kings had followed this law in respect of him, but it looks like Ersim didn't. "He takes what he sees as most valuable and gives it to the King. The ore is probably what he's targeting. Try giving the humans enough food for a single day everyday and don't bring them any more ores. Eventually he'll lose interest and you can bring them more food."

" **And the ore?** "

"It's best if you just focus on getting them food," You pause. "And medical supplies. They'll need them if the soldiers try to force them to bring out valuables they don't have."

The eyes bob up and down. " **There is more, (Y/n).** "

You straighten. "Alright..."

" **More humans have gone missing.** " Your blood goes cold. " **There are females gone now too.** "

"What about children?" You breathe.

" **None that we know of.** "

Your shoulders sag. That was good. At least there was that. " _Please_ make sure no child goes missing. We don't know what's happening yet but..."

The eyes bob some more. " **We will do everything in our power.** " The eyes go thin. " **There's one last thing, (Y/n).** "

Oh, gods. "Yes?"

The eyes go even thinner. " **Something other than we roam the villages of Arnev at night.** "

You dare to hope. "Do they wish to help as well?"

The eyes go side to side and the troll's voice is soft. " **No, Lady Witch. They are hungry.** "

Your eyes go wide as you realize it. Terrance's voice is soft like you've never heard it and his eyes are wide as well.

He's scared.

Your eyes narrow. "Make sure all the humans stay indoors at night. And you guys only deliver supplies to the humans when you are _absolutely sure_ these things aren't anywhere around. Do not let them get any children." You furrow your brow. "And you guys need to look out for each other too, okay? Don't go anywhere alone."

The eyes bob again. " **Do you think...?** "

"Maybe. But let's not make any hasty assumptions. For now, just don't approach them. Perhaps they'll move on."

The eyes bob even more. " **Hopefully.** " They turn into crescents again. " **Tell your apprentices we look forward to meeting them.** "

You smile at him gratefully for the subject change, but you're sure it's a little weak. "Please be careful."

" **We will, Lady Witch,** " His eyes match his warm tone of voice when he says, " **Thank you for your concern.** "

The mirror shows your reflection once again as the ore returns to hovering just above the frame.

' _They are hungry._ '

And you feel a little sick to your stomach.

~

You open the door to the backyard and close it behind you once you walk through. You pad across the narrow back porch and sit down at its edge, letting your bare feet dangle over the side to brush the soft grass. Your apprentices haven't noticed you yet. They're all out here, horsing around with... are those your practice dummies?

"Woo-hoo! And the champion is, once again undefeated!" Bokuto announces dramatically and dances around a bit, a bow that was too small for him raised in the air along with his victorious fists. He slaps a despondent Hinata on the back and then laughs merrily. "Try not to let it get you down too much, Shouyou-kun! Your opponent was too skilled for you!"

"Says the guy who's only ranked fifth out of all of us," Kuroo comments idly from off to the side.

Bokuto falls to his knees.

Akaashi sighs from his place next to a bored looking Kenma and Tanaka sneaks up behind the streak-headed boy with his tongue sticking out in concentration. After a moment, a cloud descends and rains lightly on Bokuto.

You laugh a little.

Tanaka and Noya high-five and Bokuto has to lunge to the side with a yelp of terror as a lightning bolt flashes out from the cloud to the ground near him. The two who had caused it look at the hand they had high-fived the other with in awe while you fight for oxygen between quiet, heaving laughs.

"Mistress," You look up. Kaen towers over your prone form with an amused smile. "I see you are enjoying yourself."

"Yeah," You smile too and sit up, patting the porch next to you. Kaen lowers themselves and mirrors your position as they sit. "They've just figured out they can combine powers," All the boys crowd around Tanaka and Noya with smiles and questions, even Bokuto who looks torn between congratulating them or pouting at them. "Though I'm not sure if they've figured out it's not just those two."

Kaen hums and the two of you watch them for a while as they try to figure out what happened and debate between themselves whether or not to try it again without you there. They haven't noticed you even then. Not even Yamaguchi, though you suspect Tsukishima knows even though he hasn't said anything. You'll have to work with them on that.

"So?" You look at Kaen questioningly. "What has you so upset? And don't even try to give me that look, by now you'd be turning their competitiveness around into some sort of training but you're sitting here watching them," They cut their eyes to you. "Pensively... What are you thinking about?"

You watch the boys a bit longer. Most have gone back to target practice but Tanaka and Noya sneak off a little ways and try to recreate what they had done. Suga keeps glancing back at them worriedly. Just to be safe, you put up an invisible shield around the two's practice area and Tsukishima's eyes dart back to where you are before he goes back to jibing at the shooters. Yup, he definitely knows you're there.

"More people have gone missing in Arnev," You keep your voice low, very low. "And there's something or _somethings_ that are wandering around and might possibly be eating them."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Are you going to send one of us?"

"I'm really hoping I don't have to. You guys cause a lot of destruction when you get serious." You grumble, side-eyeing them.

They giggle sheepishly and rub the back of their head.

"Don't you tee-hee me," you mutter tetchily, then sigh. How are you going to fix this?

"Well, if you decide to properly call one of us out, when the time comes, you can always show Kenma too."

Your eyes drift to the boy. He's given up on watching the other boys challenge each other and is trying to make a grass blade person. And is failing, apparently, he has a frustrated little frown on and the little thing tries to wiggle out of his grip before it's finished. Spirited little thing. You smile at your own joke.

"That's true. We've got to give him the choice to Birth or Summon soon too."

"Oh, hey! It's (Y/n)!" Hinata waves frantically with a wide smile. "Hi (Y/n)!"

Inuoka, one of the ones up to shoot next, turns and sees you too. "Oh, it is! Hey, (Y/n)!"

You quickly cover up your serious expression with a smile and wave back at them.

Tanaka and Noya jump guiltily and slowly stop feeding magic into their experiment as they turn and wave sheepishly. Unable to help yourself, you disperse the shield  with a loud pop and cackle loudly when they hop away like something was chasing them.

"(Y/n)!" Kaen scolds with a frown.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Still giggling, you make a small shield behind Kaen and then disperse that with a pop too. They jump off the porch with a startled mew and you fall over with laughter.

"That is _it_ , young lady! You can just stay out here until you learn some manners!" They step over you, slam the door, and latch it, locking you and your apprentices outside.

Still giggling even with all of this, you sit up a little and stick your tongue out at the closed door.

"Oh no, did Kaen-san just lock us out?" Suga jogs up to the back porch to check the door but before he even gets close enough to try you wave him off.

"Don't worry. They'll cool off in a little bit, they just hate it when I pull practical jokes. They should really blame Stella for letting me play with the faeries so much."

"(Y/n)-chan~!" You sit up a bit, seeing Oikawa waving at you with a bow in his hand. When he sees that he's gotten your attention he smiles. "Watch this!" He draws back on the arrow and launches it. It sinks into the dummy just below where the collarbone would be. He turns back and beams expectantly.

You look between him and the arrow. "Are you trying to impress me?"

He and all your other apprentices blink in unison at your bluntness, but he smiles charmingly after a bit. "Is it working?"

You look at the dummy consideringly then back to him. The magic inside him flows smoothly, calmly, exactly like the element he controls. You hold out your hand and his bow and quiver vanishes off him and lands in your palm. You set them beside you. "Summon some water, you'll need a large amount," You point to the dummy. "And use it to attack. Then I'll be impressed, depending on your attack's effectiveness."

Oikawa looks at you funny but Hinata eagerly bounces up and down with an elated smile. "Ooh! Ooh! Me too! I wanna train too!"

One look at his magic and you were practically blinded. "Okay, first, I need you to come over here," He quickly jogs over to stand in front of you at attention. You pat the bit of porch next to you where Kaen sat before. "Sit here," He does so with a confused look at you. "And try to calm down."

He whips his head around to gape at you. "Eh?! But, my magic is fire, right? Fire's got to be _Fuwaa!_ and _Chaka! Chaka!_ , right?"

"But what you have is not completely fire, remember? When you get excited your second aspect flares too bright and that means if you try anything your magic will be too hard to control. So, just sit here and calm down. Count grass or something."

Hinata pouts. You can tell he wants to do more and is confused with your explanation but he does what you say anyway, looking down at the grass and moving his mouth around the numbers.

You smile and pat his head, idly surprised at the softness of his hair, then look around at your other apprentices. They all stand around, looking to you for direction.

"I'm only training whoever wants to be trained." Sugawara is the first to start walking toward you with Daichi right behind him. Tanaka and Noya race past them to skid to a stop in front of you. Bokuto races past Kageyama and ends up behind Tanaka and Noya in a sort of line to you. After a small squabble about seniority, Suga pushes Kageyama to be in line next, then it's him and then Daichi. Inuoka bounces up after them.

You wait. Yamamoto walks up next, followed by Kuroo after a small chat with Akaashi who stays by Kenma who won't lift his head from his new puppet that fights its way through the grass like it's a huge jungle. Asahi hesitantly walks over then, without any goading from his friends.

It seems that's all you're going to get. Iwaizumi is by Oikawa, keeping him from getting too into his own mind with jabbing insults and comments. Tsukishima stays with a nervous looking Yamaguchi while letting out a tired sigh and they move over to Akaashi and Kenma after a moment. Yaku argues with Lev, oh wait, he's pushing the other boy over to you by his bubble.

"Sorceress, this idiot's too cowardly to ask you himself but he needs to be out of his bubble. Can you please help him?"

You look from Yaku to Lev, who flinches. You stare into his eyes for a long while. "You must not lie to your fellow apprentices. Do you want to tell them or should I?"

The backyard is big but it's still small enough that all of your apprentices hear you and look over.

Lev shoulders come up to his ears and he looks down with a sneer. Not at you, you could tell, but at himself. "Am I even an apprentice when I was never really a real champion?"

"What?! Then you were one of the people who just pretended?!" Hinata exclaims. There are looks of surprise but nobody says anything as Hinata has just summed up everyone's thoughts. They look back and forth between you and Lev. And all of Hinata's calm is gone now too, damn. Out of the corner of your eye you notice Tsukishima refuses to look in the direction of the commotion.

Hinata is still yelling his disbelief so you plop your hand on top of his head and he instantly goes quiet. To him, you softly murmur, "Calm." He nods stiffly, but he looks like he's concentrating so hard that he's getting a little nauseous. You idly comb your fingers through his curls to get him to relax and look at Lev once Hinata's head dips as the tension leaves him. "Whether or not you are an apprentice is up to you. If I didn't want you here I would have told Wir who you were in my letter." Lev's eyes go wide. You slide your gaze to Tsukishima and wait until he looks over to meet your eyes before you say, "Everyone who is here is here because I want them to be," You look back and forth between him and Lev. "Regardless of blessing or curse."

Lev's eyes widen even further. "You even know about that?"

You nod. "I have a very good idea about who did it too. I'll have to contact them to see about lifting it, so unfortunately you'll have to wait until then." Lev winces and you tilt your head. "They'll have to tell me why they placed the curse so I can remove it, but if you want to tell me your side of the story I'll be happy to listen."

There's a long pause. "A lot of stuff happened but, I guess I have an affinity for magic?" You incline your head. "So I ended up as a magician's apprentice in the Pnassan palace..." There are more exclamations of disbelief (Hinata being strangely quiet this time) but you stay silent, knowing there was more. "But I was really clumsy and broke things a lot, so the Head Practitioner put this curse on me as punishment. It was only supposed to be for a week or two but even with this I kept breaking everything, so they kicked me out without lifting it."

A heavy atmosphere settles around you and all your apprentices take a step back as Lev begins to look nervous. Hinata goes still under your hand and you realize you had unconsciously started to grip his locks. You smooth them out and scratch lightly through his scalp apologetically before putting your hand in your lap to clasp the other tensely, fighting for calm.

There's a long tense silence as you stew in barely contained anger.

"Your mentors... kicked you out of the castle... _purposely_... _without_ lifting your curse...?"

He cringes and shrinks into himself. "Yes...?"

You jump to your feet and march to the back door. Knocking rapidly, you call out, " _Kaen?!_ "

They open the door with an annoyed look but when they see your face, they quickly step out of the way. Behind you, you hear them ask the boys what happened but you're through the living room by then and don't hear their answer.

You barge into your workshop and scour the place for what you're looking for, throwing a few things in your anger. Finally you find it. You slap the shallow silver basin on your worktable and go on the hunt again. A thing of black sludge, a couple rubies, and some sand, then a pitcher full of spring water. You toss a bit of everything into the basin, the spring water being last with only enough to evenly coat the bottom. Despite the small amount, everything else sinks into the water and it becomes clear. It ripples for a bit, with you angrily tapping a nail on the tabletop, each time it connects with a loud click that only mildly soothes your anger.

There's a high clear tone when it connects and the King of Pnas appears in the water with an innocent look. "(Y/n)? What a surprise!"

"Navoi Iren," You grit out through clenched teeth. "You know full well the reason I called."

"Bubble boy finally spilled the beans, huh?"

"Don't call him bubble boy!" You did too but that was different. "What you did could be up there with some of the stuff evil Sorcerers do, you know?"

"Aren't you in more danger of becoming like that? You know, considering our titles?"

" ** _Shut up!_** " He goes silent, with good reason. You very rarely raise your voice and when you do you are _livid_. "The only way I can possibly forgive you for this is if you tell me how to lift his curse and give me sole mentorship over him as a pupil."

He cringes. "I can give you the cure to the curse but--"

" _Sole_ mentorship, Navoi."

"The boy is a thief, (Y/n)," He sounds tired and exasperated. You pause to listen. "He was caught trying to steal from the palace, his apprenticeship is to cover the cost of what he would have stolen."

"But he didn't steal it."

"What?"

"You said, ' _what he would have stolen_.' So he didn't steal it. You're making him pay for what he didn't do."

His eyes go hard. "It was fitting punishment for what he _tried_ to do. Don't tell me what equal compensation would be for my possessions, (Y/n)."

"Did you even ask him _why_ he stole it?"

"Wha-? Well, no..."

You take a deep breath. Calm, (Y/n), calm. You still feel your magic buzz angrily under your skin. "Sole mentorship, Navoi, and his cure. I won't accept anything less."

"But--"

"I'll pay the rest of his debt with gold or whatever you want monetarily, though I wonder how you expected him to pay his debt back when you threw him out?"

He flinches. "That was decided without my consent."

"Too bad. He's mine now." You stare each other down. Then you soften your eyes. "He's mine, Navirie."

He groans loudly and slaps his hands over his eyes. "Dammit, (Y/n)! That look is not fair! You used to do the same thing when you were little!" You grin just as he peeks out between his fingers. "That look too! Augh! Fine!" You grin even wider as he speaks the rights to release Lev and tells you how to free him.

"Thank you, Navirie~!"

"Don't call me that, ugh. And I'll accept my payment in rubies."

"What is with you and rubies?"

"They match my eyes." He bats them for emphasis.

"Act your age, loser." You clear the basin of his laughing image.

You clean it and put everything away before heading back outside.

When you step out on the porch Kaen is the first to pounce on you with questions. "(Y/n)! What happened? Are you okay? Who were you yelling at?"

As a reply you just smile triumphantly and hold out a palm toward Lev. As the first few words are uttered a ribbon of your magic coils around the bubble. You recite a bit more and the ribbon spins around the bubble, searching for weak points and gradually turning it (f/c). With the last few words the ribbon squeezes abruptly and the bubble flashes a golden yellow before it bursts, sending smaller bubbles of the same color into the air.

Lev stands frozen for a second, then he looks around at everyone. "You guys aren't red anymore!"

Yaku kicks him lightly in the shins with a small smile but it still makes Lev buckle. Everyone comes over to congratulate him with slaps on the back and hair ruffles. They're really rough but you think Lev somehow appreciates it, the small assurances he's not stuck in his protective jail anymore.

You step off the porch and your apprentices make a path for you to get to Lev. You look up at him and bring your hands to his face. You look into his eyes directly for the first time without anything between you. They're a beautiful vivid green. You smile proudly and remove your hands from his face to hold one out to him.

"My apprentice." Your smile widens as your hand begins to faintly glow.

Lev's eyes widen too. "But, my debt--"

"Cleared. You're free to do what you like and I would be happy if you decided to become my apprentice officially, seeing as you couldn't before."

He looms over you with a sharp smile. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"Positive." Your smile doesn't falter and neither does your outstretched hand.

He grins and clasps his hand in yours. "My mentor." There's a bright flash as a bit of your magic goes from your hand into his, and instantly you can see the dense gold sparks that drift inside of him.

"So that's how they did it..." you murmur and Lev quirks an eyebrow at you. You let go of his hand. "When at the castle what did they teach you?"

"Um, they mostly had me clean up after them, said I didn't have enough magic for them to teach me anything useful."

"The Head Practitioner said this?"

"No, the ones who work under him did."

Your eyebrow twitches. "And that idiot didn't check that claim himself?" Unable to hear your muttering, Lev looks at you in confusion but you shake your head. "They were wrong," you say loud enough to hear. You sweep glowing eyes over him again. "You don't have an 'affinity' for magic, you have naturally innate magic. I don't even have to give you power because you have your own. A lot of it, actually. Only a complete amateur would mistake it for an affinity."

There are various exclamations from the other apprentices but Lev looks like you had either given him the greatest gift or a death sentence. And his quickly paling face points to the latter.

"Oh no. No no no no. Hey," You cup the sides of his face and turn his head toward you, but his eyes are empty, the vivid green now dull. "Look at me. Lev, look at me!" His eyes focus on you. "Tell me what's wrong."

"The curse," he whispers. He starts to shake a little.

You squeeze his cheeks a little to keep him focused and rub your thumbs over them to calm him down. The other apprentices have all gone silent. "Hey, I got rid of it, remember? You're free."

"But it was a part of me... I thought I was just hearing things at first, it kept saying that I was bad, what I had done was horrible...!" You shush him, trying to keep him calm because he's starting shake harder and he's clenching his fists worryingly tight. "I thought it was just the curse trying to punish me but i _t was my own voice!_ " he hisses feverishly. " _It was **my own magic, hating** me!_" His eyes are still focused on you but they're emptying again. A glance at his magic revealed that it is doing what you feared and attacking its host, Lev, due to his own self-deprecation.

Your eyes harden. "Everyone get back."

Several pairs of eyes widen. "But--"

"Just do it."

Kaen steps forward and starts ushering them away. "(Y/n) knows what she's doing. We must trust her and do what she says."

Lev shakes even harder and curls in on himself as his magic gets even stronger with his intense emotions. You have to grit your teeth against it, it lashes out at anything near, you have to draw his attention to you so this wouldn't be directed at anyone else. You move your hands from his face to wrap around his back, hugging him close. "It's okay, you're okay. You're not a danger. Your magic doesn't work like that." Normally, it doesn't, anyway. To everyone else, you prompt, "A little quicker, please." Lev shakes harder, whole body trembling. When there's at least five feet in between the two of you and everyone else you reach into Lev and _pull._

A tingle sweeps over and through you and you clench your teeth harder as it sends small pinpricks of pain through your entire being. It's also a lot cooler of a sensation than it should be but that's to be expected, this is the first time it's been set free without anyone altering its purpose. Lev sinks to the ground as it's released and you go down with him, keeping your arms around him.

When you open your eyes, you smile. It's spread a little farther than you expected but your apprentices, who are staring in awe beside a smiling Kaen, had reacted quickly and managed to move out of the way in time.

You look at Lev. His eyes had fallen shut when his magic came out and he had curled further into himself. You make sure the smile is audible in your voice as you call to him, "Lev. Lev, open your eyes. You need to see this."

He slowly cracks open his eyes and when he looks around he stops shaking as his mouth falls open with the same awe his fellow apprentices are expressing.

Lev's magic is beautiful. It stretches around the two of you in a large dome, not a prison as it was before but a shield. Not a trace of the condemning red can be found, instead it glows a gorgeous shimmering gold. Parts of the protective barrier are transparent while thicker bands of gold lay a pattern of curls that swirl just a little fast, excited to be free after so long. The air inside the dome is crowded with little golden puffs that look a mix between dandelions and snowflakes. One drifts near you and you unwrap an arm from around Lev to let it land on your outstretched finger with a smile. This is what you see when you look at the magic in Lev, but it's quite an experience looking at it with normal eyes.

"I've never seen anything like it," You feel Lev turn to you but you keep your eyes on the magic floating around you. "I've seen protective magic before but none were as... pure and noble as this." You finally look at Lev. His green eyes reflect the gold light as a few of his puffs drift close. They stare at you intensely. "You'll protect the people you love splendidly, Lev." You smile at him.

A little of the pressure you felt since his shield went up eases and you blush lightly as you make the connection that that was because Lev was starting to care for you just a bit more.

"That's so cool! It looks like a snowglobe!" Inuoka beams excitedly just beyond the barrier and you smile at him a bit nervously as Lev helps you to your feet after he stands. "Hey Lev, can you let me in too?" He reaches out and your yell of warning comes too late as he touches the shield.

You whirl around and tackle Lev into an embrace to get as much contact as possible. He manages to keep his balance and as he brings his arms up around you, the barrier snaps into itself from the light pressure on the outside. You make sure the backlash is redirected to you and a choked gasp of pain leaps from your lips as the barrier slams into you and your knees give out as everything goes fuzzy.

You feel a head rush as you feel yourself falling but then there's a sudden pressure on your lower back and your limbs sway as you dangle, everything still quite a bit blurry. Oh, Lev must have caught you. That's his voice mixed with Kaen's that's calling for you worriedly. You can faintly hear your other apprentices getting closer but Kaen says something and they all go quiet.

"'m fine," you slur, though you're fighting to speak clearly. You blink a few times, sight clearing slowly and hearing coming back to you. You groan. "Bu' ne _s_ t time, let's _not_ touch other people's magic unless I say so." You hear a muffled apology and accept it distractedly as you blink hard a few more times. Ugh, why wouldn't the sky stop being so fuzzy?

"Okay, maybe everyone's lessons should wait while (Y/n) rests a bit." That's Kaen and there are a few 'Aw!'s but everyone is in agreement.

Something squeezes your side and you look down from the sky to a very clear Lev who stares at you worriedly. Oh, the sky wasn't fuzzy it was just a cloud. "Are you okay?! You looked really out of it for a moment there."

You cringe as his loud voice berates your ears after just having gotten your hearing back but nod. "Yeah, I'm fine. You wouldn't have taken that backlash very well so I took it but I wasn't prepared for it to be that strong." Your side is squeezed again and you look down.

Lev is still holding you. You're draped over his arm with one of your hips pressing against one of his.

Lev comes to the same conclusion as you at about the same time and you both jump away from each other, faces flaming. This is a bad idea however, as your legs begin to give out again but this time Kaen catches you.

"Alright. That's enough playing outside for you, young lady."

"Aww, but I didn't even get to catch a horned beetle yet!" you joke in a high-pitched mock of your own voice, trying to ignore the heat of your cheeks. "Besides, I thought I was banished from the house until I learned manners?"

Kaen steps onto the back porch and smirks playfully down at you. "Could it be you want to spend more time with your boyfriend?"

You look at them in horror and shush them frantically as you look over their shoulder. Your apprentices are far behind the two of you, crowding around Lev for some reason, but that didn't ease your mind one bit as Kaen didn't even bother to lower their voice! "He is not my boyfriend. None of them are my boyfriend, they are my apprentices!" You both enter the living room and you eye them as they help you down onto the couch. "And you say I need to learn manners..."

In response, Kaen sticks their tongue out at you on their way to the kitchen.

~

You call a few more books into the living room and they float to you from your workshop on (f/c) sparkles. They land, spine towards you, on the coffee table you summoned and you check the titles. A medical book, a meditation book that was actually passed down to you from Stella, and a book on Shikigami. Perfect. You mark a few things down on parchment. No sense in being idle, even while resting, so you're gathering together a few things to help the boys with their training. Of course, most of them require hands-on learning but this would help in the long run.

"You sure look comfy, Great Protector of Yevoll."

You look up. Tsukishima walks over and sits in the sofa across from you. Though there's a sneer on his face, you can see the nervousness in his eyes.

You reach over and pick up the hot drink Kaen had prepared for you and snuggle back into the blanket they had wrapped around you. Why was a mystery, it was the middle of Summer and the temperature inside the house didn't differ that much from the outside. "Well, I _am_ supposed to be resting." He glances pointedly at the papers and books surrounding you. "I said supposed to be."

He snorts.

You look at him carefully over the rim of your cup and stay quiet. You don't pick up your pen again and remain reclined. You both know he didn't come here just to check up on you.

It's quiet for a few moments.

"You know I don't have magic."

Your eyes fall closed and you take another sip from your cup.

He reaches up and takes off his glasses and stares down at them in his hands. You look at them, then back to his face. "My brother gave me these glasses. He's the one with magic." He turns them over and looks through the front of the lenses. "The magic of enchantment."

You set your drink down and fold your hands in your lap. "And so you think you have no magic."

He looks up at you sharply. "What do you mean, think? I _know_ I don't--"

You cut him off with a loud buzzing noise, startling him into silence. "Wrong~!" you sing-song. With a wave of your hand, Tsukishima's glasses lift from his hands and drift to you. You look them over with glowing eyes and smile as you see what you expected. "What do you think the enchantment on these glasses is?"

He furrows his brow. "To be able to see magic." You smile softly. His eye twitches. "Then what is it?"

You let your eyes fall closed again and pulse magic into the glasses as you open up the link between you and Tsukishima.

A voice you don't recognize rings through both of your heads.

' _For my little brother to recognize his potential._ '

When you open your eyes, Tsukishima's are wide and locked on the glasses. "Akiteru..."

You turn the glasses over in your hands and look them over from every angle. "Whoever made these glasses is very talented. The enchantment is very well-crafted." You look up at him. "But the enchantment isn't to give something that the wearer doesn't have, it's to enhance what's already there."

He stares at the glasses with a new look in his eye.

You raise a brow at him even though he isn't looking at you. "Have you tried to look at things like you do with your glasses, without them?"

He opens his mouth, then closes it, still looking at the glasses.

You smirk and send them back to him. They land in his carefully outstretched palms. "You should try it. Just don't put too much power behind it, start with low increments." He looks up and sets his wide eyes on you. You chuckle. "Don't underestimate _The_ Sorceress. If I didn't want you here you wouldn't have gotten past the palace gates. You're here because I want you to be, remember?"

He just stares at you.

You wave at him dismissively. "Go on. You have my blessing to go train, just remember what I said."

He narrows his eyes at you and you smile when they briefly flash white. That smile drops when he says, "Black lace. Nice."

You flush and gather your blanket closer around you as you throw a book at him. He ducks and chuckles as he walks out to the backyard again, slipping on his glasses.

You huff and summon the book back over, getting back to work.

"Stupid hormonal boys..."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still with me? Good.
> 
> So Lev and Tsukishima are showing some interest~ Even Hinata is feeling those flutters, but no one wants to acknowledge it yet. No smooches yet either, gotta develop those relationships and that plot first.
> 
> The next chapter takes place right after this one but it still in the works and I'm packing up to move soon irl so it might not be out for a while, just fyi.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	6. Legends and Geysers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And though they call me a buffoon, I am not stupid enough to ever go back there.
> 
> ~The Fool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have a few things to say, but I'll put the other stuff at the end. 
> 
> The first thing is OH MY GOD YOU GUYS I GOT MY FIRST EVER FANART AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  
> https://fantasypunchpunk.tumblr.com/post/157731916011/nekonekodemon-well-now-this-is-my-third-time
> 
> It's the Sassy Witch AKA the reader! It was done by the incredibly talented and lovely Naoko_Kiseki on AO3  
> http://archiveofourown.org/users/Naoko_Kiseki/pseuds/Naoko_Kiseki  
> And they can also be found as nekonekodemon on Tumblr~!  
> https://nekonekodemon.tumblr.com/
> 
> They are so cool you guys, go follow them. And just so you know I would absolutely love to see any and all fanart you guys have for this series. Just tag me on Tumblr  
> https://fantasypunchpunk.tumblr.com/
> 
> Or submit it to my page, https://fantasypunchpunk.tumblr.com/submit  
> Make sure to include all your art blog urls because I _will_ promote you.

Hot drinks and blankets do not mix with Summer weather. You make a note to tell Kaen this as you _throw_ the blanket across the room frustratedly. You're just about ready to tear your hair out. All you want is to go to your workshop and look through the books you have to see if there was anything else you can scrounge together as study material for your apprentices. But nooo, Kaen _refuses_ to let you off the couch, and you're adamant with the fact that you have to do it yourself, you don't exactly _know_ what you need off the top of your head, that's why you need to look, you'll know it when you see it.

You sit there, arms crossed, muttering to yourself as you seriously contemplate throwing a tantrum even though it will get you nowhere.

A tingle at the edge of your senses brings you out of your moody plotting and you look up.

Kageyama stands in front of you at attention, his fists clenched and shoulders tight. Yellow-green has splotched itself on his fingers and over the back of his hands and makes a ring low around his tense neck. But there's dark blue speckled over the bridge of his nose and around his eyes which lock on you with a steady intense gaze.  
  
Nervousness and seriousness respectively.

Hm. Not who you were expecting to see right away. And these boys _do_ know you're supposed to be resting, right?

"Please teach me how to control my magic, Sorceress-sensei!"

Your face scrunches up. "No titles. You're my apprentice and all, but just call me by my name."

His face scrunches too. "Then, (Y/n)-sensei."

You sigh heavily. Something tells you this boy won't give up easily.

"Hey, (Y/n)? I think I'm very calm now, so can you- Kageyama! What are you doing here?! I'm asking (Y/n) to train me!"

Kageyama scowls right back at Hinata's irritated pout. "I'm asking (Y/n)-sensei to train me too, dumbass."

You watch in fascination as Hinata's face scrunches in anger then relaxes just as easily as he takes a deep breath. The two continue saying things that you pay absolutely no attention to as you look at his magic. It's steady, for the most part, it pulses and shines with the shifts in his emotions but at a controllable level.

That... that shouldn't be possible.

He's mastered his emotions to a level comparable to... you don't even know. The magic that he has _should_ have made his emotions even harder to control, it agitates them. But even with that he managed to calm himself. It's like... like... like getting a toddler with terrible twos to not only stop having fits but also getting them to speak proper English _and_ be polite. It's something a magic-user takes months or years to master and he had done it in a single afternoon.

It's impossible, unless...

"Hinata," Both boys stop talking/arguing and look to you. "When you were calming down, what did you do, exactly? How did you feel?"

Hinata looks surprised for a second and stutters a bit before he looks down and rubs the back of his neck. "A-ah, um, well, the counting thing wasn't really working so I did that pose that cool sword-wielders use sometimes in the pictures on storybooks,"

"You still read storybooks?"

"Shut up, Kageyama! Only the ones with cool heroes!" He pouts while giving him side-eye. "Anyways, I did that pose and closed my eyes and I was really bored for a while but then I felt really warm--"

"Idiot!" Kageyama blushes fiercely and slaps the back of Hinata's head before he can say anymore. "You're not supposed to tell a girl about that kind of stuff."

"No, Kageyama," You wave placatingly. "I don't think that's what he means. Go ahead, Hinata."

When Hinata realizes what he said could be misconstrued for, he turns extremely red and it's only due to your intervening with his magic that his entire head hasn't caught on fire yet. "When I said warm I meant my chest! Like, my heart... Like when my mom hugs me or when Natsu calls me a cool big brother." His blush dies down as he thinks harder and you let his magic flow freely. "And then I saw these lights," You perk up and Kageyama glances at you as he sees the movement. "Like fireflies, and then there were so many of them I couldn't tell the difference between one and another!" Hinata's face is awed by the time he finishes.

You put a hand to your chin. That only brings up more questions. Your magic shouldn't have bonded with him that quick, especially since it was an element, and a high element, at that. Did he have an affinity for this type of magic before you chose him? Was it speaking to him?

As much as you really want to know... you _guess_ you could find out later. You turn your gaze to Kageyama, who straightens as your eyes land on him, then look back to Hinata, who still has a thousand yard stare as he thinks back to the feeling he doesn't realize is his own magic. You have more important things to worry about now.

"Kaen!" you shout, startling your two apprentices.

" _What~?_ " their voice drifts to you from your bedroom.

"Can I go out and play now?!" you drawl.

"Play?" Kageyama and Hinata echo in confusion and you wave your hand impatiently as their question almost cuts off Kaen's response.

" _Have you been resting?_ "

" _Yes!_ " you groan, done with everything.

" _Okay then,_ " You grin and hop to your feet. " _Only if you take your staff!_ "

Your grin immediately drops. "Aw! Come on, Kaen, I haven't had to use that thing since I was ten!"

" _I'll hear nothing of it, young lady! You need the stability!_ "

You pout at nothing in particular. The fact that they were right didn't make it any better. You pick up the study material you've gathered so far and split them between Hinata and Kageyama for them to carry. "Take this and follow me," you grumble.

When they walk through the curtain into your workshop, they halt just past the entrance and gawk around at everything. You take a moment to try and see through their eyes.

To the left there's your worktable, currently cluttered with a few different tomes and some plants, dried and fresh, that are scattered with a few other things. On the wall behind that there's a tall bookcase that you refitted to hold a variety of different ingredients for spells and enchantments, it towers from floor to ceiling. And the ingredients are so not organized. There's belladonna next to an orb of liquid gallium and a bunch of daisies by... you don't know, something glowy?

You have a system.

No, really.

To the right there's a long table with your distillery on it, most of the glass attachments are already hooked up because there's a particularly complex ingredient that's being broken down right now. As it goes through each tube it changes color, red through a corkscrew, yellow through a long arch, purple through a bulbous orb that's heated from below, black through some zigzags, to end in pink as it lands in an open bottle encased in ice.

On the wall behind that, there's another bookcase but this one is built into the wall. Books of various subjects, thickness, and length are packed into it. It's what in the corner furthest from the door on this wall that you aim for.

You leave your two apprentices to their gape-mouthed stupor to retrieve what Kaen wanted you to have from the corner. A beautiful light beige birchwood staff. The grain is smooth in your hands and you run a palm fondly over the tip where a (favorite stone) rests, cradled by the wood that curls over the top of it like a crashing wave, leaving the sides of the jewel exposed.

Like you had yelled earlier, this was the staff you had used when you were younger to help you learn how to properly channel power out from yourself and from the earth. It's as tall as you were then, but now it only comes up to just below your shoulder. You run your hand over it again, smiling lightly. This was the first thing you had made for magic and you're damn proud of it, you had hand-carved it, after all.

Shaking yourself out of your nostalgia, you grip the staff and walk to the curtained entrance opposite of the one your apprentices stand at. You move the curtain aside and hold up the staff as Kaen looks up from the book they're reading.

"Okay, I have it. Happy?"

"Yes." They nod at you while smiling. All closed eyes and smug grin.

Rolling your eyes, you let the curtain fall and walk to the bookshelf, the one that's actually filled with books. Since you're here, you might as well get the books you wanted to get before. You bend at the waist to look at some of the lower shelves, using your staff to help you keep upright.

There are a few loud thuds followed by fluttering. Confused, you look over you shoulder and see Hinata and Kageyama scrambling to pick up the books you told them to hold, both with red faces and strangely quiet. What--?

Hinata glances up at you and meets your eyes. His face glows even brighter and the ends of his hair smoke as he whips his head back down.

Ohhh~ With a small smile, you suppress his magic to manageable level as his control is not where it should be at the moment, and give the two a bit of mercy as you crouch down instead of bending over.

See, this was fine. This was a lot cuter than someone commenting on your underwear!

You use magic to pull out a few more books. The Effects of Time on Matter, How to Get Your Way!, and Animal Anatomy. They float in the air and lazily circle around you until you get to your feet and then you guide them into the crook of your arm where they can rest on your hip.

When you turn around the two boys were pointedly not looking at you or each other. You can't help the grin that spreads on your face as you walk between them out into the living room.

"Come along then, don't dawdle."

The grin stays on your face as you hear them scramble to catch up.

  
You step out to the back yard and once your feet (Now with shoes!) touch the grass you throw your arms in the air, staff held aloft.

"I'm _free~!_ " You spin around in fast circles.

You hear a few laughs and chuckles but you don't care. Being outside is _great!_

"(Y/n)-chan~!" Your arms fall to your sides. Oh, great. What does he want now? You turn, pleasantly surprised to see your rather sturdy training dummies with deep grooves all over their forms. Oikawa pops into your line of sight with a smirk. "Impressed?"

You walk over to them and inspect the grooves. Smooth, not jagged. "I'm very impressed. Go through what you did one more time so I may see."

Smirk still in place, he holds his hands out to either side with his palms up and the moisture in the air collects into orbs above them. You switch your vision to look at his magic and see it collected at his hands like it should be. He brings his hands together to form the water orbs into one that gradually gets bigger. When he has it at the size he wants, he stretches it around in a long tendril and slowly snakes it through the air. When the head faces the same way he does at his side, he thrusts his hand out at the dummy with force. The water follows the motion and at the last moment you see it thin out exponentially before it slashes through the dummy's arm and evaporates. The arm falls to the ground with a soft thud.

"Ah! Sorry! I meant to slash through its side--!"

"Don't be. That was excellent form." You wave the staff, jewel glowing, and the arm floats back to the dummy and reattaches itself, the damage on it and all the others repairing itself. Oikawa frowns at his lost efforts and you take that moment to eye him. "Have you eaten?"

"Eh?" He turns to you, then looks away. "Ah, well--"

You smack him over the head with the staff and he cries out in pain. Before he can say anything you bend down and grab at his knee. You definitely notice as he goes still and winces. You let go and stand straight, smacking him over the head again.

"Ow! Hey--!"

"Not impressed anymore. Take better care of yourself!" You shake your staff at him with narrowed eyes and he nods quickly. "Now hold still." You hold out a hand and it glows (f/c), Oikawa's knee glows the same color and you soothe stressed ligaments and repair cartilage. "This will help you for the time being but," You look at Sugawara and he straightens. "Only a Healer can fix this permanently." Suga frowns a little and nods determinedly. When the glow fades from Oikawa's knee you shove him at the house and point at it. "Now go ask Kaen to fix you something. Actually, all of you should be eating by now, go inside. I have some preparation to do."

Suga's frown turns concerned and he aims it at you. "Shouldn't you be eating too?"

You wave dismissively, looking around the backyard contemplatively. "I will in a minute. You guys just go ahead and go in first--" You let out something of a squawk as everything gets turned on its side.

You glare up at a smirking Kuroo who has you tucked under his arm. "No can do, kitten. You have to eat with us."

Your glare softens but it's still there. "I can walk on my own."

"Nope."

Even though your arms are stuck at your sides, you twirl your staff in your hand and smack him right in the spine.

He flinches in pain but doesn't drop you. "Ow."

You sigh heavily and go limp in his hold, hearing your apprentices laugh behind the two of you.

 ~ 

You bounce out into the backyard. "Free again!"

"You really like being outside, don't you?" Yaku quirks a brow at you.

"Oh, uh. Yeah." You clear your throat, trying to will away the embarrassed heat in your cheeks. "Okay! So, you guys need one on one training. But before we start all that, there's something I need to tell you. Kenma?" He looks up from his palm where his grass blade puppet is copying Oikawa's earlier movements. "This is very important so I would like you to listen." He looks down and nods.

"As I'm sure everyone here has noticed, the Forest of Solidarity is beautiful but very dangerous. The animals here are a lot stranger than the ones found in the rest of Yevoll and the reason for both of these things is the same." You snap your fingers and a roll of parchment appears in your hands. You unroll it and stretch its dimensions to make it a bit larger for everyone to see while walking over to them. You turn it around and show them the map. 'Forest of Solidarity' is marked in big letters across the top and the large oval shape is marked with different colors.

 You point at the green strip with the little brown arrows that encircles everything except a small section on the East that's bordered by sea labeled Hoshikuzu Cliffs.

"Fool's Pass," You look up and around at all of them. "Anyone know the story behind why this mountain range is called that?"

"Because anyone that chooses to cross it is a fool?" Yamamoto snorts.

"That _is_ part of it, yes."

"There was a group that crossed it to enter the Forest of Solidarity but only one managed to return. He said the people with him had gone mad and tried to kill each other after they had all been attacked by monstrous beasts. Everyone he warned called him a fool until more people tried to travel the same route, any route, over the mountains here and brought back similar stories."

"That's precisely why, Akaashi. They named the pass after that first survivor after he succumbed to his own madness and killed himself." A few faces went pale. "Don't worry, the cause of the madness was figured out long ago and so was the cure. As long as you have me, there's nothing to worry about." They relax at your calm smile. "The cause of this madness is what I want to focus on. The 'beasts' that those people faced, you've encountered them before, on your way here." You bring up a detailed illusion of the tarantula-pitcher plant hybrid, Hanantula, small scale for less trauma. All of your apprentices' eyes narrow at it and Sugawara, Asahi, and Hinata shift uncomfortably. Taking pity, you enlarge it until most of it is out of focus except for its fangs. You make the illusion ooze out a bit of viscous fluid from them and point to it. "Venom. All predator type animals and plants in the Forest of Solidarity have evolved to develop a very potent neurotoxin venom that not only gives you violent hallucinations, it corrupts magic as well."

"Corrupts magic?" Tsukishima furrows his brows. "That's not possible. Magic is just energy, it can't be good or evil."

One eye squinches while you tilt your head from side to side. " _Yes_ , I suppose that's true. Magic can only be defined by whoever uses it, _but_ what I mean to say is that the venom turns magic against its own user. It causes the magic to wear at the victim from the inside until they die, although the hallucinations usually took care of that first, and once the victim dies the magic either goes back to the beast that gave them the venom or into the Geyser."

"Wait, what geyser?" Iwaizumi interrupts before you can go on.

You blink at him, and then at the rest of them. "Right, got a little ahead of myself there. I keep forgetting you guys are new to the whole magic-user thing, but I guess even some of the other magic-users don't know about this-..." They all stare at you blankly. "And I'm rambling. Okay! Geysers, and that's with a capital 'g'," You gesture at the map in a circle around the Forest of Solidarity. "Are large areas where there is _lots_ of untamable magic. There are lots of them around Maeni and they all affect the things around them in different ways. There's one that's pretty much harmless in Igeshi that manifests art into visual magic, like tangible illusions, and I know the entire country of Okikazu is one that gives people strange abilities at birth, sometimes modifying their entire body... And I'm rambling again! Anyway," You point to the map. "The Forest of Solidarity is a Geyser."

"And that's how the beasts developed that venom."

You beam at Kuroo. "Yes! Solidarity's Geyser affects the animals here. I think I have a record of it somewhere..." You snap your fingers and a heavy tome falls into your hands. You brush your fingers over the cover. "Yes, this is it. Let's see..." You open it and the spine crackles in protest. You pat it comfortingly in an absent gesture and run your fingers under some of the words on the page. "When the Geyser first 'erupted', so to say, all it did was imbue the native animals with magic that made them tougher to catch and kill, and no longer safe to eat. Over time, the magic affected them how the venom in the legend affected humans and they became violent and mindless."

"How could they have become mindless?" Inuoka piped up. "I mean, don't they already run on pure animal instinct?"

"Oh!" Everyone looks to Bokuto as his whole face brightens. "That's why I couldn't talk to that giant spider! It was mindless!"

You smile sadly. "Yes, all animals have the capacity to be reasoned with, if you're patient enough or have the right power, but the magic in Solidarity's animals has sapped them of this quality. Even the animals that normally function in groups will attack everything, even members of the same species. It may not seem like it but animals evolve just as much as humans do with their intelligence, and though the magic has given them the greater advantage it's cost them a lot of their evolutionary strides." You look down at the tome. "Their mindlessness enhanced their basic survival instincts and made them more ruthless hunters in addition to completely disregarding the barrier between species during times of mating."

Sugawara holds up his hands with a very disturbed look on his face. "Wait, so...?"

"Yup." You snap the tome closed and send it away. "And that's something that still happens every Spring. Even predator and prey classifications don't matter then. A frog will get it on with a snake, who then gets it on with a panther and somehow a tarantula will mate with a pitcher plant. Still trying to figure out how that one happened, actually." All of your apprentices' faces are twisted with disgusted confusion. "Yeah, well, some of the combinations back then were really good, survival wise. Prey got even harder to catch, predators got even harder to avoid, and there had to be several edges to be had on both sides if anybody was going to eat or survive. The magic in them helped speed up the evolution process until today, with the terrifyingly, beautifully diverse Forest of Solidarity we know! The venom was one of those evolutionary products, but with how everything mates here it's a part of almost every creature in this jungle." You squint out at your wards like you can see through them, which you can but you don't need to. You can feel the beasts on the other side of them, waiting. "Everything's either venomous or poisonous and it's a nightmare."

You look back to your apprentices and they're all staring at you with wide eyes.

"How do you _live_ here?!!" Hinata bursts out.

You shrug. "Meh. Magic, mostly," You gesture up and around at your wards. Your apprentices can see them, along with any magic of yours that would usually be invisible to the eye, thanks to that bit of your magic inside them. "But I make a break for the Kingdoms every year when Spring comes around." You shiver violently.

"Wait," Daichi's brows scrunch together. "They don't try to..."

" _All_ barriers between species. Yeah, didn't think that applied to me either until a Pyther, which is a panther mixed with a python, broke into the living room and tried to get to third base with me. First _and_ last mating season spent here. I don't even know _or_ care how it got through my wards. I'm just not doing that again." You shake the memory away before it can really surface. "Anyway! I think that's the gist of just about everything. Any questions?"

They all blink at you a couple times.

"Okay then!" You clap your hands and rub them together. "Training. Hinata," He straightens. "Would you like to go first?"

He beams and the ends of his hair spark a few times. "Yes!"

"Good." You smile as you confidently twirl your staff a few times and jab it into the ground. A (f/c) circle forms at your feet, lighting up your (e/c) eyes from beneath. "You will be Yevoll's Light."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thank you, Naokocchi, for pointing out my flaws. (No really, thank you, I'm so embarrassed.) 
> 
> In case any of you were wondering, I still haven't been able to move. Why is finding an apartment so hard?
> 
> Now as for what I wanted to tell you guys, the Geysers. If you noticed, I mentioned two in particular besides Solidarity, Igeshi and Okikazu. These will be other fics that I write in this 'verse. Igeshi will be a Magic-kyun! Renaissance fic and Okikazu will be a One Piece fic. I want to finish My Hero before I put up either of these but I already have a little bit of the plot laid out for the One Piece one so that will probably be next. If anyone hasn't caught it yet, Maeni is the word Anime all scrambled so this world is one I made with specifically no set specifics on how big it is or how many countries there are so I can write for however many fandoms I want to here. And though it is 'Anime' I don't think I'll limit it to just that. (I have a small Voltron story that I'm agonizing over currently, so maybe I'll throw that in here too.)
> 
> Fuck, and I just realized I forgot to take a picture of the map key. I'll fix that later.
> 
> So that's everything! All of you are bundles of awesomeness wrapped in kindness!! Love you guys! :*
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	7. Preview - Relax

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sensing is a very sacred magic that requires you not only be in tune with your surroundings, but with yourself.
> 
> ~From The Grimoire of Old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a special gift for Naoko_Kiseki! She wanted a oneshot featuring Yamaguchi so I wrote it... but I like it so much I decided to make it a part of the story later on (this is NOT a preview for the next chapter, I mean way later on) so my Mean Author SideTM came out and cut it short. BUT there is lots of fluff so please don't be mad at me Naoko!
> 
> And I would like to mention that the Reader is seventeen, not that much older than the boys and even younger than some of them and this was mentioned back when she was restored to her rightful appearance. But if some of you remember it was also said waaaaaay back at the beginning almost that she was an older woman. This will be explained a bit later but I just wanted y'all to know her real age is seventeen, okie? Okie.
> 
> And without further ado... sit back, and Relax~

Yamaguchi takes a deep breath. In through his nose, out his mouth. He sits cross-legged on the floor of his room, hands laid limply on his knees, head bowed, breathing evenly. Despite his efforts, his hunched shoulders, twitching brow and fingers point out just how tense he is. He just can't--

"Relax, Yamaguchi."

He sighs deeply and opens his eyes, looking at you. "I'm trying, (Y/n)-san. It's just..."

You hum contemplatively. You had brought him past the point where he hears nothing around him as he senses his surroundings but the next step is troubling. It's troubling no matter whether it was easy or hard. For those of whom it's easy it was overwhelming, but it was overwhelming no matter what. For those of whom it's hard, like Yamaguchi, they have to relax enough to let everything in. Once he has, then you can move on to the next step, pinpointing, but now...

"I thought having you do this in your room might let you get comfortable but it seems not." You pause, then peer at him worriedly. "Do you not feel comfortable in your room?"

He quickly waves his hands. "No! No! It's not that! I really like my room, it's just..."

"Just...?"

His brown eyes flick up. "You."

Your eyes widen. "Me?"

"It's just, I've never really," He motions with his hands. "Spent, you know, one-on-one time, with a girl."

"Oh. Oh! Hm."

He lowers his gaze shamefully. After a moment of thought, you go over and sit next to him. Close enough that one of your knees touch, but there's plenty of space between your sides. He looks up in surprise at the light brush and when his eyes meet yours you tilt your head to the side.

"Yamaguchi, have you ever been close to someone before?"

He blushes and his eyes dart to the side before meeting yours again. "Well, there's Tsukki."

You purse your lips. "That's good, but not quite what I meant. Let me put it this way," You lean back and prop yourself up by your arm with the heel of your palm on the floor. "When was the last time you hugged someone for a really long time?"

His blush deepens. "What?! No, I don't--!..." He pauses as he actually thinks about it. "My mom? When I was really little? I don't really remember it all that much."

You frown. "That's no good. You should hug your mom more."

"I do! Well, I did, when I was around her, but they were quick hugs not really long ones."

"Those are the best ones, though!" Your frown softens. "I guess it's okay, but you should really try it..." You sit up and spread your arms. "Alright, bring it in."

"Bring what in?"

You roll you eyes. "A _hug_ , dumdum. C'mon." You wave him in.

He tenses up even more in embarrassment. "What? Why?!"

You make a sour face. He should be hugging you already! "One, because you need a long hug if the last one you remember was so long ago. And two, because you need to be more comfortable with and trust me. I _am_ kinda teaching you to defend your life." You wave him in again. "Now, c'mon!"

With a heavy blush on his face, he scoots over until his thigh is pressed against yours and reaches over to hesitantly wrap his arms around you. When you feel the warmth of his hands on your back, you fold your own around his and pull him close, closing your eyes with a small smile.

On his side, Yamaguchi is having a low-key heart attack. Y-you-you're so close, really close, and. . . soft. . . and warm. And you smell really good, like- He tilts his head so the tip of his nose brushes your hair. Rain. You smell like rain on fresh growth.

His hold tightens on you and his head drops down into your neck with a deep sigh.

You glance at the back of his head and smile wider, rubbing your cheek into his hair.

You stay that way for a while, both of your heartbeats slow and in sync, breath rhythmic and calm. You comb your fingers through his hair and get surprised out of your wits when in response Yamaguchi lifts you up to set you on his lap.

His eyes flick between yours unsurely. "Um, is this--?"

You laugh softly and continue running you fingers through his hair. "It's fine." He relaxes in your hold. You lean your head on his shoulder and pick up his hand, threading your fingers together. "Now, I want you to try reaching out."

Yamaguchi closes his eyes and does so. And now that he's relaxed, his magic spreads out around him easily and immediately starts feeding him information. Information about... _everything_.

His hand seizes in yours before it clamps down hard and his entire body tenses, still as a statue.

_~To Be Continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, now even I wanna know where this is gonna go. But we're not there yet, damn.
> 
> Hope you liked it! The next actual chapter should be up very soon, just gotta read it over again.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	8. Dawning Beacon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second of the two great powers is Light. It is the youngest and represents potential.
> 
> ~From The Grimoire of Old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEW FANART~!!! 
> 
> http://animemanga0528.deviantart.com/art/Haikyuu-Sorcerer-658109836
> 
> Go love it and AnimeManga0528 AKA Sha Sha for they are precious.
> 
> FOR THOSE OF YOU FOLLOWING ME ON TUMBLR, MY ACCOUNT HAS CHANGED AND THE OTHER HAS BEEN DELETED.
> 
> My new tumblr is here: https://fantasypunchpunk.tumblr.com/
> 
> And the blog name is FantasyPunchPunk. My icon is pretty much the same as the one here on AO3 just so you know it's me.
> 
> Now, back to business.

The (f/c) circle rises transforming your boots into something sturdier that goes up to just below your knees with steel around the toes and ankles. Your pants change into worn leather, your blouse into a tunic. Your corset goes to over the bust now and armor materializes over the left side of your torso, front and back. (Precious metal) arm braces are the last to appear and your transmogrification circle fades away.

"Whoa." There are quite a few dropped jaws.

You smile and snap your fingers, another circle appearing at Hinata's feet and he goes still as a statue and makes nervous noises as it puts him in attire similar to yours, the only difference being the arm braces and the lack of corset.

The circle fades and you nod in approval at what you see. "Alright then. Akahibana!"

Kaen comes tumbling out of a gate of flames that appears next to you, their book bouncing off their head. They sigh heavily. "Yes, My Lady?"

"Hinata and I are going to Willow Wake. Watch over everyone until I'm back, okay?"

They get to their feet, scooping up their book, and bow. "Understood."

"Great. C'mon, Hinata." He jogs over to you. "Oh, and the rest of you figure out who I'm training when I get back, and until then," You snap your fingers and the books you picked out earlier go to who they're intended for. "The six of you study up on those."

You take Hinata's hand and wrap it around your waist, ignoring his flustered sputtering and the shocked looks of your other apprentices. You hold up your staff and the jewel glows the same (f/c) your eyes do as you ready your magic. Hinata's hand feels like it's either trying to hold you tighter or let go of you so you put your hand over his to make sure it stays in place.

"(Y-(Y/n)-!"

"Shush, it's easier to travel this way." You look to Kaen and your apprentices and smile. "See you hopefully by tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning?!" Several of the boys, including Hinata, shout.

You twirl your staff once at the ground and then whip it up, moving your hand from Hinata's to his shoulder and pulling him close to you as the grass around both of your feet sways away from you in ripples with the summoned wind. The grass dances more violently as the wind gets stronger and Hinata lets out a startled sound while holding you closer that turns into excited exclamations of awe when your feet leave the ground.

Besides the initial take-off gust, your ascension is almost silent, only the faint whistling of the wind giving away what was keeping you two aloft.

With an elated grin you make a small motion with your staff and the two of you fly higher, nearing the top of your wards.

You look down at your gathered apprentices and send a wink at the boy standing next to a gaping Lev. "Take notes, Yaku!"

You wave your staff and with a loud torrent of wind, you and Hinata phase through the ward like it's a giant soap bubble and are off.

 

Your apprentices stand in silence and watch you and Hinata fly away.

When you're out of sight, Bokuto, who's still looking up at the sky, loudly asks, "So... Anybody want to practice with the weapons we haven't given back to Pnas and Sefarl yet?"

The consensus is a 'yes, this is a great idea' and before the people who didn't really get to say that this is a bad idea can actually say it, the people who want to practice go to retrieve the sharp pointy things. The rational people immediately go to convince them to not do this, but one of them, Akaashi is held back by a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turns and sees Kaen.

"They'll be alright for now," They say, "I'll have to get (Y/n) to return what you've borrowed to the Kingdoms when she returns, but right now I want you to take this." They hand him the book that was transported with them that they had been reading before. "This is something that _I_ want you to read. It's not part of your training, but I think you'll find it useful."

"Sure. Thank you, Kaen." Kaen nods at Akaashi and turns to head inside. He looks down at the book. Its cover is heavily worn black leather, soft to the touch, and the lettering on the front is embossed gold with an orange tinge to it. The title reads, ' _The History of Karasuno_ '.

~

Hinata falls from your arms and his feet land on the dusty ground lightly, barely disturbing the ground. His excited hopping does agitate it into sending up a few small clouds though. "That was amazing!!! We were all like _whoosh_ and _swoosh!_ And _fura fura!_ "

He babbles more to himself as you drop straight from the air onto your back, groaning. "Never doing that again. Ugh, flying with another person, a _wiggly_ person too, is _so freakin' hard!_ " You sigh deeply and just lay there for a moment as you let the little ball of sunshine buzz in the background. You let your eyes fall closed and just breathe for a second.

It's very quiet here, no birds or early rising crickets sing and the earth itself doesn't thrum as strongly as it does everywhere else. Well, almost everywhere.

You pause, brow lifting. It's too quiet, where's the excited buzzing? You open your eyes and prop your upper half up on your elbows. Hinata stares out at the landscape around him, his back facing you. You call out to him but he doesn't turn.

"It doesn't..." The line of his shoulders is taut and his fingers lightly curl in on themselves, as if grasping for something that isn't there. "...feel right."

You sit up fully and cross your legs. Willow Wake is a damaged land. Damaged but very _very_ slowly healing. Even the more fearsome creatures that live in this half of Solidarity don't tread here as the memory of what once cursed this land is still too fresh. The earth is more akin to dust and what little trees are here, persistent in their strive to the sky, only grow so high before their energy is siphoned back into the ground, leaving them brittle enough to be toppled by the winds. The energy, a weak heartbeat felt through your fingertips, constantly cycles, trying to revive itself little by little.

Hinata stares at one of these trees, the last of its energy almost gone, having done its job to produce just a bit more revival, and he stares at it like it's a friend going to a far off place he can't follow.

You get to your feet and walk over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It will be, one day." You imagine the look on your face is similar to his, except your friend has already gone and you know they won't come back.

You smack him on the back and he pitches forward, arms pinwheeling. "So! Feeling calm and centered?"

He regains his balance and eyes you with a pout. "Um, I think?"

He flinches back when you blink suddenly bright (f/c) eyes at him. His magic flickers like an unruly candle flame. "Try taking a deep breath." He does and his shoulders relax, hands going slack, and his magic steadies. You blink your eyes back to their regular color. "Good. Perfect. Now try making a flame."

Hinata's eyes pop open and dart to you. "N-now?"

"The present is a gift, why waste it?" You step back to give him room and smile encouragingly, waving him along. "Go on, doesn't have to be perfect or any specific way, just make a flame and try to hold it as long as you can."

"U-um," He looks unsure for a moment but then he grins. "Okay!" He closes his eyes and his brow furrows into a look of concentration. You blink the glow back into your eyes. Hinata's form is replaced with a featureless yellow-white silhouette. It doesn't spark like it did a few minutes before, it warms to orange, and then slowly to red. His hair, just barely discernible from the rest of his figure by the way it sticks out, gradually begins to turn white. You switch your sight in time to see Hinata's heavily smoking hair burst into flames. His eyes fly open and he raises his hands to his hair. "AH! Hot--!"

"Stop." His hands freeze obediently but he fidgets.

"B-but, my hair is on--"

"Is it really hot?"

He blinks and his hands lower. "Huh?" He tries to look at his hair. "It..." His eyes fall back to you. "It's... just warm?"

You smile and step up to him. You hold out a hand and he flinches as you try to put it into the fire on his head but with a look from you he stills. You stretch out your hand and the flames harmlessly part away from it, your smile warms as some of them caress your digits, leaving nothing but a tingling warmth behind. "This fire is a part of you, Hinata. It wants to burn you as much as you want to cut off your own hand." You look at him. "The same rules apply to those you think of as friends." You smile wryly. "I'm glad you think of me so favorably otherwise this could've turned out very different." You chuckle.

He looks from where your arm disappears above him to you and realizes just how close you are. You yank your hand away as his blush makes the fire a little _too_ warm.

You giggle breathlessly, a little nervous, as you shake your hand to cool it down. "Unfortunately, your emotions can still sway that control, so you'll have to work on that."

"S-sorry!"

"Don't worry about it." You grab the wrist of the affected hand and flex it a few times as you smile at him. "How about we work on something else?"

~

You jab a stick into the red tongues and shift one of the burning logs, releasing a mini shower of embers. You drop the stick into the flames and they eat it with happy crackles and pops. You lean back onto your palms with a sigh, tilting your head up to look up at the stars. The smoke from the fire drifts up to linger among them, making them flicker in and out of sight, and they dance with it.

"(Y/n)," Hinata's voice brings you back to earth and you look at him.

He lays in a sleeping roll you summoned from home with some of his armor still on. His chest plate lies to the side of him, reflecting the light of the fire and leaving one of his most vital points exposed. But that's okay, it's your turn to be on watch, you'll protect him when he's vulnerable. He's supposed to be asleep right now. When he doesn't say anymore you hum quietly in question, just in case he's talking in his sleep, but no, he's awake.

"Is fire- my fire- scary?" You tilt your head. He's facing you but his eyes are somewhere else, on the reflection of the fire on his armor.

"Is this because you accidentally burned down that tree?" He had been trying to move his fire like Oikawa moved his water and ended up sparking a dead tree. He had run around like a chicken with its head cut off while you stood with your face in your hands. "It's actually better that it caught fire, you helped it release its seeds--"

"No, it's not that." You pause. Normally, he would've been at least a _little_ flustered, now he's. . . despondent, almost.

"Then what is it?" Your voice is hush on the night wind.

His eyes stay glued to his armor. "My fire. . . can still hurt people."

Images come to your mind. Spider legs wheeling, liquid flying through the air; skin, burned and bubbling. When Sugawara was drenched by the Hanantula fluid, you piece together. These memories aren't yours, they're Hinata's.

Your eyes drop to the fire when the log you shifted falls back to where it was before and the flames crackle at the movement.

You look up at Hinata. "With the power you have now... that's always going to be a possibility. Even when you finally get control, things like that can still happen." His face crumples into a grimace. "But you can protect them with your fire too."

"How?!" He scowls at his armor, at the flames he can't look at directly. "All fire can do is burn people, hurt them!"

His chest heaves with the force of his words and you watch him calmly.

"Do you know what else fire does?" you ask quietly. You don't get an answer but you continue, "It burns away diseases from medical needles so a cut that's sewed shut doesn't get infected." Hinata finally looks up at you, meeting your eyes through the flames, you smile softly. "It makes food more flavorful. And most importantly," Your smile fades as you look at him seriously. "It brings us light in our darkest times." You look pointedly at the fire between you and Hinata does the same.

". . . Do you want to know what the true aspect of your power is, Hinata?"

In a voice quieter than a mouse, "Yes."

You smile and match his tone, "It's Light."

His brow furrows and he sits up. "Light?"

"It fits you, really." You look into the fire. "Hinata Shouyou, a sometimes blinding existence," You look up at him. "A beacon of hope."

His brows furrow even further. "Beacon..."

"When you accidentally hurt Sugawara-san," He flinches. "What were you trying to do?"

He frowns and the ends of his hair begin to smoke. "I wasn't--!"

"What were you thinking at that moment?"

His hair cools and he looks at the ground. "I had to save Kenma-san..."

You smile. "You wanted to protect him." He looks up at you. "What happened wasn't any fault of your own, it happened because all of you simply lacked experience and training. On the contrary, if you hadn't have done what you did, Kenma may very well have ended up dead."

He looks down at his fingers and twines them together and apart idly. You wait to make sure those words really get through to him.

"You wanted to protect him so much, you were aflame with that desire. Do you remember?"

He's quiet and then his eyes widen. "I do. It felt..." He goes quiet again.

When the silence stretches you hum gently, proddingly.

He pulls his knees up to his chin and wraps his arms around his shins. He closes his eyes and though his brow is furrowed, he looks at peace. "I felt like I could wrap everything and everyone important to me in warmth and protect them."

"Your fire and your light wanted the same thing as you and everything merged into one." You smile at him when his eyes open to look at you. "Was it scary?"

"No. . . It was. . . good."

"That's how it should always be, whenever you do magic."

The fire crackles some more and Hinata stays in his defensive curl.

"Sugawara's not angry with you for that, you know."

He looks up and his eyes are teary. "But I hurt him. He's my friend, and I hurt him."

You look at him with pursed lips. "Then the next time you see him, ask him for forgiveness. That's all I can tell you." He sniffs but nods. "Good. Now get some rest. We're not leaving here until you learn to fly on your own."

Hinata hunkers down in his sleeping roll and is out almost immediately, still sniffling even in his sleep.

You find another stick and prop up the log within the fire again, it's wobbly but it stays.

The stars claim your attention until the night turns into dawn.

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cAN I HAVE THE LITTLE BALL OF SUNSHINE JUST BE RECOGNIZED FOR HOW AMAZINGLY SKILLED HE IS?? caN I?!
> 
> He was so proud and confident in his jumping skills in the beginning and yes, his blase humbleness now is good too, but besides the surprised first reactions no one really praises him for how good his skills are. Yes, Hinata and Kageyama's teamwork as a combi is terrifyingly awesome, but that's their skills as a combination. And Kageyama is constantly recognized as the 'King of the Court' both when he was a dictator and now that he has rehabilitated. But no one has gone up to Hinata and immediately recognized and feared him for the fierce and talented player he is on sight. I want that to happen here. Except, I still want him to be a lovable ray of sunshine, so he is now Yevoll's Light, Beacon of Hope.
> 
> And you guys, I just wanna thank you for sticking with me this long. There's still a whole lot left of this story so I hope you'll stay with me through the whole thing, you're what makes this fun! ^U^
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, and Kaen.


	9. Swallowed by the Raven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Princess. This is only just the beginning.
> 
> ~The Man with Purple Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MILD VIOLENCE AND GORE WARNING
> 
> If you wish to skip it, don't read from "Little Sorceress~" to the end of the chapter. Events depicted will be retold calmly (as in not in graphic detail) and explained in later chapters.
> 
> Thanks again to Naoko_Kiseki for spotting spelling errors!

The grass under your feet crumples as you land and you disperse the wind as you look up to check on Hinata. Right on cue, his fire is whipped away by a stray breeze and he drops like a rock, screeching. With a sigh and a wave of your staff you call up the winds again and Hinata's screech cuts off as he's buffeted up into a bounce and then lowered to the ground gently.

His eyes dart to your unamused face and you raise a brow.

He laughs sheepishly and rubs the back of his head. "I guess I should work on my landings."

"You need to work on your temperature control," you start to lecture with narrow eyes. You wag a finger at him for good measure and feel a touch of vindictive satisfaction when he grimaces at the chiding tone. "You're using fire, use it unabashedly, that's the only way it'll be of any use. It's _fire_ you're using, you know, one of its main properties is being unruly, if you try to control it, it will weaken--"

You're cut off as a tiny blur of red and black fuzz barrels into your chest, knocking itself into your armor with a clang. You look down at it with wide eyes. "What in the world--"

" _Mistress!!_ " The thing wails and it shifts until tiny red eyes look up at you pitifully.

A side of your mouth twitches up with a poorly repressed snort. "Kaen? Is that you? What--?"

Your eyes go wide when Noya and Tanaka leap out of the house with war cries and their weapons raised high. They land and circle around each other back to back until Noya's eyes land on you and he points with a loud, "Ah!"

Before you can feel alarmed they're bowled over by Yamamoto, who doesn't even spare his flattened fellow apprentices a glance as he pushes off their shoulders to lift his torso up and yell, "I got 'em!" Then he looks down. "Oh, hey guys. When'd you get here?"

They groan in answer.

Inuoka and Lev are the next to bound out, and promptly howl with laughter at the sight that greets them.

"Come on, guys, this isn't funny," Tanaka wheezes out as, him being in the middle of the dogpile, he has more breath to complain than poor smushed Noya. "Tora, get off, man."

"Right, sorry bros." As Yamamoto gets to his feet and helps the other two up, Kageyama squeezes through Inuoka and Lev with Yamamoto's double-sided saber in one hand and his own katana in the other.

"Yamamoto-sempai, you forgot this in your rush."

"Oh, thanks."

Tanaka and Noya give him the stink-eye.

"What?"

"You tryin' to steal our kohai, _huh?!_ "

" _Huh?!_ " They both have _the_ most ridiculous faces.

"They're so cool!" When you look over at him, Hinata has this sparkly look about him.

You stare at him incredulously. "...Are you serious?"

"Uh, _guys?!!_ "

When you look back at the other boys, they're all staring at you but this time it's Inuoka pointing.

You blink. Do you have something on your face?

"I tried to say that before!" Noya grits out.

In unison, all six take a step towards you and you blink in surprise. In your arms, Kaen tenses up and you look down at them. "What's wrong?" You send a skeptical glance at your slowly approaching apprentices. Why are they trying to sneak up on you, they know you can see them, right? "What is up with them? And now that I think about it, how did you end up like this?"

Inuoka stops in his advance while the others continue and looks between you and Kaen. "Wait, are you actually talking to that thing?"

Kageyama stops and looks between him and you two at that as well.

You raise a brow. "Uh, _yeah_? This _thing_ is--"

"Guys, wait!!!" Bokuto comes barrelling out of the house and Noya, Tanaka, Yamamoto, and Lev all hiss for him to be quiet or he'll scare the creature away. "But that's just it, guys, I don't think it's a creature, it's--"

"Let's just get it before it gets away!" Tanaka growls and spins to you. "(Y/n)-chan, just hold it and keep still," He holds his weapon tighter as he quirks his brow and purses his lips in what he probably thinks is a charming look. "We'll take care of it."

"Yeah," Noya grins exuberantly and crouches low. "Leave it to us!"

Without a predetermined signal all four leap forward in unison, weapons raised.

Bokuto and Inuoka shout for them to stop the same time Kaen tenses up violently in your arms.

Kageyama and Hinata look on with wide eyes.

It's when you see where the four's weapons are pointed that you decide this has gone on far enough.

Without even the faintest twitch of your finger, the boys are encased in (f/c) and are halted, mid-air.

Everyone is silent in their amazement at this show of power but you have no room for pride in your well-honed magic for all your irritated impatience. "Alright, that's it," If your unamusement isn't clear on your face it's clearly heard in your voice. **_Everyone, come outside, please. I think some explanations are in order._** You make sure all of your apprentices can hear you and soon after the creaking of floorboards announces their approach. All your unaccounted for apprentices appear from inside the house and if they notice the 'dangerous' baby tiger in your arms they soon forget it at the sight of their friends suspended helplessly in the air.

Your eyes briefly pause on a nervous, guilty looking Asahi but they continue to flit over everyone else after a moment. They eventually come to Akaashi, who's staring at you with a look you can't decipher, that is, until you see the old book in his hand.

Your eyes meet his again and he narrows them at you. You sigh lightly and look away. The two of you will definitely end up talking later.

When everyone is outside you flick the wrist not occupied with holding up Kaen and all of the weapons they're holding float out of their grips on clouds of (f/c) sparkles, including the ones that are in the suspended four's hands. "First of all, you guys shouldn't be using these. Once you finally get a good grasp on your powers, I'll commission someone for special ones that you can utilize with your full capabilities."

There's a low impressed whistle from Kuroo and Iwaizumi smiles a little.

"So, these," Eyes up, you separate and group them according to who they came from. "Can go back to their rightful owners." With a few charged words each group disappears one after the other.

"Now," Your apprentices flinch when you level a stern glare at them. "Would anyone care to explain how Kaen got reverted into a kitten?"

"Kaen?" the murmur is unanimous.

"Yes, Kaen," You let the suspended boys slowly float to the ground, now that you've taken away their weapons, and snap your fingers, that red scroll capped with onyx falling into your hand.

You blink and look it over with glowing eyes. Luminous red spattered with sparkling beige. You look up at the only figure that swirls with sparkling beige and it jolts and fidgets when you raise an eyebrow at them. You blink the glow out of your eyes but keep your brow raised. "Asahi?"

He begins to sweat. "I-I--"

"It was my fault!" Everyone looks to Sugawara in surprise. He grimaces but soldiers on, "I just saw this huge tiger in the living room and screamed. I just assumed it was one of those creatures that roam around here, I didn't even think..." He looks at the kitten in your arms apologetically. "I am so sorry, Kaen-san."

"I still have to apologize too," Asahi looks down in shame. "When I saw them I got so surprised that I..." His face pinches in confusion. "I think I used my powers."

"You did," Kaen grumbles from your arms. "It's the reason I'm like this, but I forgive you. You're still learning and you didn't know of my other form."

You look up from Kaen to your apprentices who are looking at Kaen blankly.

You deadpan. "None of you understood that, did you?"

"What?!" Kaen squeaks.

While the rest look at you in confusion as to what they didn't understand, Bokuto grins and waves his arm in the air. "I got it!"

The others turn their confused looks to him but you smile. "That's right, you understand animals, don't you, Bokuto?"

"I am not an animal," Kaen grumbles in offense. You pat their head soothingly, earning a reluctant purr.

"Yeah! I kept trying to tell these guys I could understand the poor tiger they were chasing, but they wouldn't listen to me."

"Was _that_ what you were trying to do?" Inuoka exclaims. "I thought you were just trying to get it yourself."

"Of course not! I never liked hunting anyway," Bokuto crosses his arms with a deep pondering expression. "I do like meat, though."

He suddenly rounds on his friend. "And Akaashi! Why didn't you help me?" He starts to pout. "You usually always back me up when I'm right."

"Sorry, I was a little preoccupied with some... reading." His eyes are boring a hole in your soul and you try resolutely to ignore him.

"But how are we going to get Kaen-san back to normal?" Yaku cautiously approaches and you let him, no longer in a stormy mood now that everything's been explained. He reaches out and scratches under their chin, earning a tiny vibrating purr.

"Can't (Y/n) fix it?" Lev trains his piercing stare on you. "I mean, you helped me yesterday."

They all look at you and you hum in thought. "I can," They start to smile, relieved. "But I'm not going to." They all fall over. Even little Kaen buckles to the side in incredulity.

"Then how do you expect Kaen-chan to get back to normal?" Oikawa folds his arms and lifts a brow once he gets back up.

You grin, eyes shadowed and shining and they all feel a chill run down their spines.

"As-a-hi~" you trill gently.

His face shows startled panic, and Kenma's does too, once you call him in the same manner.

Bokuto just lights up like a star and fistpumps. "Yus! I got picked too!"

"Do you even know what you've been picked for?" Akaashi asks exasperatedly.

"Uh... no?" And he's completely unrepentant about his excitement too.

"You three, will be the ones to help Kaen return to normal." Asahi and Kenma look nervous and unsure while Bokuto 'oohs' at his new task.

You smile, confident they'll be able to do it. "This is part of your training."

And now the two quiet ones speak. Asahi is the first with an astonished, "What?!"

And then Kenma questions, "What does this have to do with my power?"

The spirited grass-man on his shoulder nods in emphatic agreement.

"Your power--" You stop, and turn towards the house.

Everyone looks at you questioningly.

"What is it, (Y/n)?" Kaen mews.

"Someone's trying to contact me..." You look down at them. "Sorry, but could you take the lead here?" You gesture to Asahi, Kenma, and Bokuto. "I would put it off until later but it feels urgent."

"Of course I don't mind," Kaen paws toward Bokuto. "But he'll have to translate for me."

You raise your eyebrows at Bokuto and he grins. "Sure! Leave it to me."

Relieved, you walk towards him and gently hand him Kaen. "Thanks, and try not to paraphrase, okay?"

He stares at you blankly. "Para-what?"

"Just, say exactly what they say, okay?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. I can do that."

"Great." You scratch behind Kaen's ear one last time before you step back and look over all your apprentices with glowing eyes.

Finding what you're looking for, you snap your fingers and an army of combat dummies surround the meadow, arms lax and heads bowed. A stack of books about general and basic magic also appears on the porch in that same instant, along with the books you picked out for them the day before.

You point at the first group of books. "General magic study that will definitely help you understand your magic better," You point at the second. "Secondary subjects that will give you a better understanding of what you're trying to do with your magic."

You then point at the dummies. "Advanced inanimate opponents. State how many you want to fight and how hard you want them to come at you."

You step away a little to demonstrate.

"One enemy, easy."

Runes light up over the body of a dummy to the left of you and it raises its head and arms into a boxing guard position. You stay relaxed as it charges toward you and when it gets close enough you burst toward it in a flying roundhouse kick, smashing its head into the ground.

Your apprentices gape as you land lightly, rolling your shoulder. You should've stretched a little, you might've twinged something.

"The difficulties range from easy, which is hand-to-hand combat; hard, where they'll materialize whatever weapon you specify; and advanced, where they'll come at you with pseudo-magic. You'll have to specify what kind then too."

The runes over the dummy's body light up again and the pieces of the hollow wooden head that you cracked off with your kick float up and fit themselves back where they belong. The dummy gets up, runes still glowing, and walks back to where it was standing before, body drooping as the runes snuff out.

You gesture towards it. "As you can see, they can repair themselves after the match, which is good because they won't stop until you disable them or deliver a 'killing' blow." You turn back to them. "The rest of you can occupy yourselves with these, and I give you full permission to test your magic on these dummies."

You blink and your eyes glow (f/c) once again. A sharp gesture down with both your staff and your free hand and the area around the dummies is encompassed in a large circle with more runes around its edge. Your eyes slowly dim back to normal.

"That should keep any stray shots contained and lessen any damage you can do to yourselves or each other."

You twirl your staff and nod to the three with Kaen and then everyone else. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

Ponytail sailing out behind you, you disappear into the house.

The door shuts and the boys stare at it for a bit.

"Anyone else want to be kicked like that?" Kuroo asks, and all the other apprentices raise their hands.

A tiny, low growl rumbles out and they all look down at the tiger cub in Bokuto's arms. Said boy laughs out a, "Hey, Kaen! You're still here!"

They look up at him and even with a feline face that can't express emotion the, 'Dude, really?' is palpable.

Bokuto laughs sheepishly and looks around for help, of course, automatically seeking out Akaashi, who's unexpectedly absent.

The revelation stalls Bokuto's thought process enough for him to miss what's said to him a couple times before a hesitant poke to his shoulder brings him back to reality.

He looks down at Kenma, who looks away when he has his attention. "I think Kaen is trying to say something to us."

"...your head out of the ground and listen to me!" they growl, unsheathing tiny claws and kneading them into Bokuto's arm.

"Owowowow, okay! I'm listening!"

With a huff they release him and he moves them to his other arm to try to shake the pain out of the first with small tears at the corner of his eyes.

"Be sure to tell them this when I say it to you," Kaen eyes Bokuto irritatedly. "The most important rule of magic is focus, even I know this. If you lose focus there will be consequences and a majority of the time they will be painful."

When Bokuto repeats their words with a bowed head, the apprentices nod seriously with the exception of a few who were trying to hold in their laughter at Bokuto being scolded by a kitten.

"Asahi, Kenma, and, of course, Bokuto, you three stay with me and I'll walk you through changing me back while answering any questions you have about your powers. (Y/n) has already talked to me about what they are. Everyone else feel free to pursue whatever method of training you want, except battling each other."

When repeated for everyone to hear Asahi and Kenma look away nervously and a few of the boys who were eyeing each other competitively to train against, namely Tanaka and Noya grinning at each other and Hinata and Oikawa jeering at Kageyama, whine in disappointment when they learn they can't battle each other.

"Why not? It's perfectly healthy to foster a little competitive growth," Oikawa drapes his arm over Kageyama's shoulder with a sharp smile while Hinata nods enthusiastically in the background. "That's what King Dep said, anyway."

Kaen narrows their eyes. "More than anything else, all of you are a team. It would be pointless to have you all train to defend against each other when you would all be working together against any malevolent forces. Improve yourselves individually while bonding together, that is what will make you unstoppable."

Just after Bokuto repeats this speech to the rest of the apprentices, you burst out of the house, form glowing (f/c) for a split second and then you're decked out in your minimalist (precious metal) armor. Your face is pinched with urgency as you bring your fingers to your lips and whistle, high and sharp. A willow broom with reinforced spider's silk bristles zips out of the house and obediently comes to a stop in front of you, (precious metal) that caps the handle winking in the morning light as it hovers horizontally in the air.

It waits patiently as you shrink and strap your staff to your waist.

"(Y/n)? What's going on?"

You whip around at the small voice, eyes wide, but calm once you register who it is. "Kaen."

You take a few steps toward them then stop, eyes darting between them and your apprentices.

You take a deep breath and stand straight. "There's something wrong in the troll's caves at raven's beak, I have to leave as soon as possible, but..." You look around at your apprentices again with a worried gaze until your eyes land on them again. "Can you look after them again?"

"Of course, Mistress." Even with that tiny voice, there's power to the words. "But you can't go on your own."

"I know," You hold up two scrolls that appear in your hand with a silver and white spark of light, respectively. One is a velvety sky blue capped with silver and the other is a muted light brown capped with extremely margaritaceous opals. "I'm bringing Ginhi and Yai with me, don't worry. They'll keep me safe."

"Can I come too?!!" Your eyes snap to the starry-eyed, bouncing orange. "I can kind of control my fire now, so I can help, right?!"

"Please, chibi-chan," Oikawa saunters up to a miffed Hinata and smiles at him condescendingly. "If (Y/n)-chan needs help, she'll obviously come to me and Iwa-chan, right?"

"Didn't he _just_ hear what I said?" Kaen mutters.

On the same line of thought, Iwaizumi walks up to him and smacks him over the head. "Stop belittling him, Oikawa," Hinata grumbles that he's not little. "When you've just barely started to control your magic."

"Iwa-chan, mean!"

"But he's right, isn't he?"

Oikawa turns to glare at Hinata and he flinches back.

"I just mean, so far we're the only ones to train with our magic so far, right? So if we both go with her--"

"No!"

All eyes turn to you and a few turn concerned when they notice how pale you look.

"(Y/n)?" You look down at Kaen, who had leaped out of Bokuto's arms to walk over to you.

You pinch the bridge of your nose. "Sorry, it's just..." You smile self-deprecatingly. "Trust the prophetic one when they say it's a bad idea for you to come. Okay?"

The apprentices look to each other in question but Kaen's little red eyes stay trained on you. "Mistress..."

"I'll be fine. Don't worry, Kaen." You manage a shaky smile to them and everyone else. "Good luck with your training, boys. I'll be back as soon as I can."

You hop on your broom and it lifts you into the sky with a displacement of air.

And then you're off, in the direction opposite the one you and Hinata returned from. Everyone doesn't move until you're out of sight.

The day passes slowly. Oikawa and Hinata take out their frustrations on not being able to go on the dummies (at separate times) ending with Oikawa almost getting his teeth knocked out when his plan to water log the dummy has absolutely no effect and Hinata almost incinerating his dummies beyond repair when he goes all out. It's quite a bit before those dummies are ready to spar again.

Daichi, Noya, Lev, Yamamoto, and Kuroo, also take turns with the dummies with their own successes and discovery of limits.

Daichi takes out a dummy with one punch that sends it into lots of tiny pieces and finds that he's only truly challenged with at least seven on easy or four on hard. He's hesitant to try any on advanced until he's sufficiently confident with his combat skills.

Noya likes dodging more than anything and the few dummies that are unfortunate enough to get him fired up end up looking like the ones that went up against Hinata.

Lev practices with his shields, getting a feel for how fast and strong he can put them up. And when reminded he has to attack them to get them to stop, he gets creative with provoking them and using their own attacks to hurt them.

Yamamoto just has fun boxing for a bit until he gets bored and touches them without his gloves.

"You know, that really makes me curious to what your actual power is," Daichi says to him when he steps out of the 'ring'.

"Yeah, me too."

Kuroo has fun being an ass and mercilessly teasing the dummies then watching their punches glide harmlessly through him in his shadow form. He's thrown off guard when circling the dummy as he steps onto its shadow and falls into it, much to the others' concern. And unease, when his insubstantial laughter echoes out from it. He has the dummy's shadow slither up its legs to its torso and crushes it, ending the match. When he steps out of the shadow his playful grin turns into a frown at all the weird inky black blobs dripping off him and it remains until they all finally fall off him some hours later.

A few paces away where they can focus without hearing exuberant cheers and jeers, Kaen explains Asahi and Kenma's powers through Bokuto.

"Ooh!" Bokuto's wide eyes flick from Kaen to Asahi. "They said your power is time, man!"

Kaen mews loudly.

"Oh, manipulation _of_ time, sorry."

Asahi shakily looks down at his very sweaty hands as Kaen mews to Bokuto some more.

" _Ooh!_ " Bokuto exclaims even louder than before and looks excitedly at Kenma. "They said you can summon Shinigami!"

Kenma's eyes expand to the size of dinner plates and Kaen meows frantically at Bokuto while batting at the air towards him agitatedly. In the background, Asahi has an existential crisis while muttering 'time' over and over to his sweaty palms.

"Oh, wait, no. Not Shinigami," He listens to Kaen growling for a moment. "Shi- _ki_ -gami? What does that even mean?"

"I would like to know too," Kenma put in quietly. He's relieved he can't actually summon death spirits but without knowing what it is he can actually summon he can't calm down just yet.

Kaen mews some more patiently and Bokuto quotes them directly, "'There are many kinds of Shikigami. The first, that you are familiar with, is created by the summoner taking materials and imbuing them with their chi and magic while fashioning them a form.'"

When Bokuto finishes Kaen points at the grassman sitting on Kenma's shoulder. "'Like him.'"

Kenma and the grassman look to each other.

"'The second is the kind that I am.' Whoa, wait. You're a Shikigami?" Bokuto and Kenma's eyebrows are raised.

Kaen mews a couple times.

"Oh, right, sorry." He leans over to whisper to Kenma, "They said they are."

Kenma hums in curiosity.

"'Now, as I was saying. The second kind of Shikigami is entirely different. There are spirits that lie in a different world, some as old as Maeni itself, and their connection to this reality is the contract that summoners make with them.'"

Something clicks for Kenma. "Those scrolls that (Y/n) had."

Kaen mews brightly and even without interpretation Kenma knows he's right.

"Wait, so does that mean she took more Kaens with her when she left?"

Kaen mews at Bokuto patiently and when they're done he nods with an introspective look.

Kenma frowns lightly in impatience. "What did they say?"

Bokuto jumps as he's knocked out of his thoughts. "Oh, right. They said," He looks at them as he tries to remember their exact words. "There's not more of them, but other Shikigami that she has contracts with, ones suited for travel and... battle."

Asahi snaps out of his freak out long enough to hear the last bit. "Battle? What battle?"

Kaen mews some more and Bokuto translates directly again. "'Hopefully a small one but she will be fine. I know the ones with her will protect her.'"

There's silence between the four as Kaen flicks their tail agitatedly.

The three apprentices are thinking along the same line, **_Shouldn't we be the ones protecting her?_**

The thought rings throughout all of their minds in each other's voices and they stare at each other in shock for a moment before they shake it off.

"Are there any more kinds of Shikigami, Kaen-san?" Kenma murmurs to them.

Kaen mews. "'Just one. These you,'" Bokuto gradually looks more and more horrified as he squeaks out, "'Give birth to'?!"

Kenma looks extremely alarmed.

"Um, I don't think he has the parts for that," Asahi comments lightly, torn between fighting a smile and looking just as horrified as Bokuto.

"'Not that kind of birth,'" And Bokuto looks very relieved about this. "'It is a sacred ceremony that allows a summoner to create a Shikigami from a piece of themselves with the help of a Priestess, which (Y/n) just so happens to be trained as.'"

Bokuto pauses and then laughs. "Kuroo's been flirting with a holy woman he has no chance with!"

Kaen's little fangs flash and they mew.

Bokuto stops laughing with a pout.

Kenma peers at him curiously. "What did they say?"

"'She's not that kind of Priestess,'" he grumbles. "Took everything out of my fun."

It takes the better part of a day for Kaen to coach Asahi through Bokuto on how to successfully age things to the time he wants them in by practicing on sprouting plants. When he gets to the point where they don't wither Kaen says he's ready.

Asahi, of course, refuses, saying he needs more practice.

"They say it's fine," Bokuto reassures with a smile. "Shikigami don't age the way we do, apparently, and they don't die. The worst you can do is make them grey and wrinkly and they say that..." He pauses as Kaen mews. He pouts. "They say even that's preferable because then they won't have to speak through me. I thought I was doing a good job interpreting though!"

Kaen doesn't make a sound but sends him a look from the corner of their eye that says enough.

Surprisingly, Asahi gets it right the very first time and they all take a moment to comfort him as he shakes with nerves; Suga, Daichi, and Noya coming over as well.

Kaen tells him that he can just take the rest of the day to rest and he'll work more with his power with the Sorceress when she gets back.

Relieved, Asahi nods and his friends lead him to the sidelines of the arena to distract him with chatter.

No longer needed, Bokuto wanders off to sit with Akaashi, who reappeared some time earlier, on the porch where he studies. Akaashi swaps out the old book Kaen gave him with one of the Sorceress's tomes before Bokuto can notice.

Kaen sits down with Kenma to talk more in depth about the types of Shikigami.

By the time Kaen looks up at the sky again it has matured to a golden orange and they trail off in their sentence as worry consumes them.

"Kaen-san?" Kaen looks down as Kenma tilts his head questioningly.

"She's not back yet."

Kenma's brow furrows before his eyes widen in understanding.

Kaen frowns but gets to their feet. "Perhaps it's time we all--" They pause at the sound of hoofbeats, and slowly the apprentices stop what they're doing as they begin to hear it as well.

"Kaen-san--" Daichi begins but goes quiet as Kaen holds up a hand.

"Stay calm."

The hoofbeats get closer and closer until something gallops through the wards into the meadow, sides heaving and antlers dripping with black blood.

The apprentices tense up as it gets nearer but freeze in astonishment when Kaen rushes over to it. Several call out to them but they keep going towards the creature.

It's a light brown with dark and light swirls in its short coarse fur along its sides, down its legs, and over its face. A face that looks like a tiger, though a bit slender and eerily expressive. Its antlers are a dull grey and expansive in their branching, coming out from its head by at least a couple feet, and they're engraved. They look like they're engraved at least, but naturally, as if they grew that way. The engraved patterns match some of the swirling designs on its pelt and are entwined with other gracefully sharp lines and they glow a dim white light, especially where they're covered with blood. Overall it looks like a painted male deer, albeit a very large one, standing half a head taller than Kaen where they tower over the apprentices at the best of times.

Being the group's eyes Tsukishima notices the slashes across its legs and sides leaking blood and the haggard, weary look in its eyes. Its magic, because the thing is definitely magic, doesn't seem to fare any better. Caramel lurches unsteadily and white streaks are faded almost to grey.

"Guys, wait. I think it needs help."

"Yai!" Kaen stops before it, hands hovering over its injuries like they want to help but don't know how to start. "Are you okay? What happened? Where is she?"

It takes a few deep pulls of air before it lifts its head and meets Kaen's red eyes with its own guilt-ridden hazel ones.

"They took her."

~

"Little Sorceress~" the voice, the one that haunts your dreams, hisses lowly with contempt. "My precious Princess," this time with affection. "Wake up."

You do so with a gasp and your eyes dart around frantically.

Dark,

dark,

dark.

You can't see anything.

Except for those laughing purple eyes. "Hello, Your Highness."

"You."

"Yes, me. Are you surprised?"

"You killed them. You killed my friends!"

He sneers. "Those things weren't your friends, (Y/n). They're creatures."

"They are people."

"Not much of an improvement there, is it? After all, we both know what _people_ are capable of."

You glare at him, eyes tracking his through the dark as he comes closer.

The eyes go half-lidded as you feel something brush your cheek and you jerk your head away, only escaping so far. They narrow.

"So stubborn. But I know your stubbornness," he hisses. "So I prepared ahead."

You try to move your head again, and don't get far, the same with your arms and legs, hands, feet, except they don't move at all. Something holds you. "Tying me to a chair," You try every manner of magic possible to get free and none work, the bindings are warded. "Barbaric."

"But effective." More brushes, this time against your arms and you struggle even though you know you can't move because you will not let this bastard touch you without a fight. He chuckles at your efforts. "Don't deny you get some measure of enjoyment from this."

A shiver goes through you but before he can comment on it you literally gag, putting emphasis on the fact that it was from disgust. "Not with someone like you. **Never** with you."

The eyes narrow. "Must you rebuff my affections so?"

"Believe me, I would rebuff a lot harder if I weren't restrained."

The eyes narrow even further and a crack rings out in the room that had been utterly silent until then.

Your eyes are wide, where they're trained to the side, cheek smarting.

"More stubbornness. But don't fret, my Princess. I will cure you of it and you will finally be mine. Also, by extent, will my rightful place on the Grand Throne be."

Despite the aching pain starting to bloom on your jaw, you work it out and then speak with a glare, "Yevoll would turn to ash under your thumb, just as any part of me touched by you longs to."

"Ah, but what better place for my empire to rise?"

You remain glaring.

"Yes, just like that fire in your eyes. But it suits you ill, My Dear Princess," he hisses again.

You furrow your brow as you hear something you can't see.

"Fortunately, I have a way to fix that."

He seizes your face, holding your right eye open, and you have a second to see what he has in his hand right before he puts it to use.

Your scream shatters the silence permanently and doesn't let it repair itself for a long time.

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to cuss me out, I'll relish any response I get at this point. (HINT Send in more comments, maybe? If you feel up to it.)
> 
> This marks one of the major turning points in the story by the way, if any of you are interested. You, the Sorceress, have finally met the one who's played a big part in your prophecies and may or may not have been sending you creepy mind messages for the first time. And he's into you?! Or maybe just your royal lineage, which- wait what?! You're a Princess?! When'd that happen?! Princess of where?!
> 
> And what about your poor Shikigami? If you've been captured what happened to them? How did you even get captured? You're the best Sorceress throughout the land!
> 
> The answers to these questions?
> 
> I'm
> 
> not
> 
> telling~
> 
> :)
> 
> Love you all even though you might hate me! *muah*
> 
> Oh! And also feel free to check out the second installment (third, technically) of the Tales of Maeni series, My Love, Your Heart, a One Piece Reader Insert based in pretty much the same world as this one with a few differences to make it more One Piece-y. Be warned, it's got smut in it.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai and Ginhi.


	10. Contract and Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And let no harm come to the summoner from the Shikigami they are bound by contract to, for they are the link that ties us to this world and the corporeal blood that runs through us.
> 
> -From the Laws of the Shikigami

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, something fell through in rl so I've been stress writing. Prepare for two more chapters after this one, I just gotta edit them, but they might be a little short. At least, according to my standards.

"Now explain what you mean when you said they took her. Who is they? Where are they now?" Kaen lays a reassuring hand on Yai's shoulder after they hand him a cup of lemongrass tea, letting him know that they're not putting any blame on him, they just need to know.

All of the apprentices are gathered around the two Shikigami in the living room, all with varying levels of concern and nervousness.

Yai stares blankly down into his tea and his hold on it is loose like he doesn't even realize it's there. The cuts on his face are still faintly oozing blood and Kaen dabs at them with a clean rag while they wait.

<\--- This is Yai.

"(Y/n) explained before we went in, she got a panicked call for help from the trolls,"

Kaen shivers at the implications. Polite though they may be, trolls are formidable and not a people to scare easily. If _they_ were panicking _and_ called for help?

"She opened the entrance to their underground caves and Ginhi took point while (Y/n) gave us some light..." Ripples form in Yai's cup as he starts to shake. "There was blood everywhere," he whispers. "The trolls... they were dead everywhere and some of them were reduced to stone even though there was no sunlight. And then these _things_ crept out of the darkness, _wailing_..."

He shivers even harder, gasping. "Gods, that horrible wailing. I-I got spooked. I couldn't- I can't-" He looks up at Kaen desperately for understanding. "I wasn't made for battle, Kaen."

"I know. It's okay." Kaen holds out their arms and Yai scooches into them, still shaking.

Everyone waits a few moments for Yai to regain himself.

"Can you tell us what happened next?"

He takes a deep breath and continues as steadily as he can, "Ginhi- I saw Ginhi leap for them while I was panicking but one of them just lashed out with its tail and he just- he just disappeared."

Kaen sucks in a sharp breath. "His scroll?"

"(Y/n) got it before they could. She-she gave it to me and it-" He reaches inside his light brown coat and pulls out a small thing that's a pale ice blue and dull silver. "He's so weak, Kaen."

Kaen hisses out a curse as they gently take the scroll from him. The scroll's pulse is a small tingling flutter where it should be a strong constant thrum. "I've never seen anything like this."

Yai's expression as he looks at Ginhi's scroll is pained. "Do you think he'll be okay? (Y/n) isn't here to recharge him and he can't materialize himself enough to speak his right of freedom back to the plane."

Kaen looks around until their eyes land on one apprentice. "Kenma, come here."

Kenma's face shows his displeasure at suddenly being the center of attention but he steps forward obediently. "What is it?"

Kaen turns solemn. "I'm sorry to ask you this but I want you to form a contract with Ginhi."

Kenma's eyes widen. "A contract..." He knows what it is already. It's one of the things he and Kaen were talking about earlier.

Yai straightens and looks Kenma over with shocked eyes. "(Y/n)'s training a Contracter too?"

Kaen hums an affirmative. "Hopefully he'll be able to Birth his own in time too."

There are some startled looks among the apprentices at that but Bokuto and Asahi quietly explain in the background. Those involved in the explanation miss the next small exchange between Yai and Kaen as a result, but Kenma hears them clearly while pretending to listen to the others.

"But then won't she...?"

"We're hoping that since the Shikigami have a say in the contract it'll still work, but for everything else..."

Kenma quickly averts his eyes when he sees Kaen move theirs towards him and he feels the awareness of their eyes pass over him in a sweep. He peeks back over to see them look over all the other apprentices, Yai following their gaze.

Yai huffs out a disbelieving breath. "All of them? But that's practically..."

"I know. And I told her. She insists on doing it anyway."

"Crazy kid."

"...okay, but why does Kenma have to form a contract with this Ginhi?" Kuroo's voice pulls Kenma's attention to the apprentices' conversation as he directs this question to Kaen.

Who for their part just blinks over at him. "...Ginhi's the only one besides Koku who has night vision."

Kuroo narrows his eyes, _searching_ for the meaning in that. "And?"

"And if he fades back into the plane, which he can't unless we destroy his scroll and that'll essentially send him into an extremely painful coma, he'll lose all memories related to the contract he's in now with (Y/n), which means we won't be able to find out exactly what creature took her."

Kuroo reaches over and claps a hand onto Kenma's shoulder. "You heard 'em."

Kenma rolls his eyes. "You're an enabler, Kuroo." But he has to admit that motivates him too. He can't let the Sorceress die. He has to find her and ask her--

He shakes his head and looks to Kaen. "What do I have to do?"

"The first part's easy in that we're doing two things at once," Kaen stands from the couch, Kenma moving back to give them room as they hand Yai Ginhi's scroll, and they crouch down in the same instant short waves of vibrant red fire sweep over their form. By the time they've all passed and flickered out Kaen stands in a more ephemeral state of their tiger form. The red stripes on their fur glow bright and the black of it blends out into the air around them.

Kaen's eyes are also glowing red when they look up. "Can you understand me?" their voice is a deep rumble that buzzes under Kenma's skin.

Kenma nods the same time Bokuto shouts out, "Just barely! All I got was 'understand' with a questioning tone."

"Well, I'm not really talking to you anyway so that's fine."

"Okay, I didn't get any of that."

Kaen sends a pleading look to Kenma who gives Akaashi another look and Akaashi says, "Shut up, Bokuto."

He recedes into his emo corner.

"Now then," Kaen flicks their tail when Kenma looks back at them. "The first part is a blood link from the contractor and a blessing from another Shikigami. The blessing isn't necessary, really, but it'll make things a lot smoother, so! Hold out your hand."

Kenma obeys with an uncomfortable twitch to his mouth.

"This will sting a lot." Kaen runs a claw across the tip of Kenma's pointer finger and he hisses at the pain. Kaen turns back to human form and reaches back for the scroll which Yai hands back promptly. "Keep your hand up, don't drip on the rug." They unroll the scroll and hold it up so Kenma, and subsequently everyone behind him (which the apprentices crowd each other to be), can see the inside. It's the same velvety sky blue as the back and there's glowing bright turquoise writing in a script the boys can't read but recognize in some of the spellwork you've done around the Keep.

"This boy is asking to be your master," Kaen is looking down at the scroll and talking to it like it's a person, which, it technically is. "Your conduit, your lifeblood, your connection to this world. He is under the tutelage of your current contractor, (Y/n), and he has my blessing. Do you accept him?"

There's a pause where nothing happens except for the writing on the scroll dimming and brightening in the rhythm of breathing.

Then the writing flashes white and Kaen smiles. "He accepts." They look pointedly at Kenma's bloody finger, that miraculously hasn't stained the rug yet despite a long red line curling around his wrist and flowing down his forearm. "Sign your name on the scroll."

He writes 'Kozume Kenma' in small stick-like letters as out of the way of the rest of the writing as he can. His signature turns from red to white and now Kenma can read the writing on the scroll. And the words themselves prompt him to read them aloud.

"From obscure mists with grasping tendrils rises the stoic wolf with teeth and claws of purifying ice.

Come forth and blind my enemies, Yoake no Shirubaraito.

...Awake, Ginhi."

The light that bursts from the scroll is indeed blinding and Kenma briefly thinks that maybe he should have specified exactly who his enemies are as he shields his watering eyes.

The light dies down and as Kenma lowers his arm he notices the scroll is now rolled up and in his hand and there's a boy kneeling before him with the knuckles of one hand pressed to the ground.

His dark skin contrasts greatly with his stark white hair enough that Kenma can't tell if he's glowing because of that contrast or because of magic. He's dressed in dark grey animal hide and there are two bright blue feathers sticking out from behind his left ear. Both of his ears are pierced with small silver hoops and he has a leather necklace with a small blue glowing pendant. There are two white streaks under both of his eyes, and when they open, Kenma sees they're a bright ethereal ice blue.

The boy is also heavily wounded with bright patches of red pointing out exactly where he's injured, the largest being the one huge slash mark gouged into his chest and a huge chunk of his hair that looks like he tried to dye it with blood.

Feeling something weird, Kenma looks down to the scroll. It's sticking to his hand like it's covered in tree sap and Kenma wants to fling it somewhere and wipe his hand off but he doesn't because the scroll feels... vulnerable, right now. So he holds it as it clings to every part of his skin that's touching it. When it's satisfied with the contact it stops, then pulls, and Kenma's eyes widen at this new, also weird feeling. He can feel whatever it's pulling out of him, tugging at a place near his heart down his arm and out through his hand where he holds the scroll. Glowing white lines snake down his forearm where he feels the pull and they slither down his hand to the scroll where it begins to glow a light blue.

Kenma recognizes this. It's the same thing you did for Kaen a couple days ago.

He looks up and sees the boy that was kneeling is suspended in the air with his body glowing the same blue as the scroll. His wounds are sealing up and the blood on his skin evaporates. The tears and stains on his clothes remain, unfortunately, but Kenma's in awe of the fact that _he's_ the one doing this, he's healing him, but he only has a couple seconds to marvel over this before the revelation that his energy is being sucked out of him makes itself apparent. Still holding the scroll, his eyes droop and he sways to one side, only barely managing to catch himself thanks to Kuroo, who looks at him worriedly.

"Kenma?"

"'m fine..." Thankfully the scroll decides it's had enough of him and the pull stops, the glow in his veins dying in tandem with the one coming from the boy-no, Shikigami, Ginhi, as he drifts down until his feet hit the floor. His eyes are already open and trained on Kenma and he swiftly moves over to him when Kenma doesn't make any move to pick himself up from his slumped position against Kuroo.

"Young Master, are you alright?"

Kuroo snorts lightly behind him as Kenma scrunches his nose at the title.

"My apologies for taking so much magic from you, but my injuries were quite severe."

"So you feed off my magic," Kenma murmurs drowsily.

Ginhi's eyebrows furrow. "I prefer the term sharing, but yes."

"Ginhi!"  
"Ginhi!"

The white-haired Shikigami is swarmed by the other two as they pick him over to see if he's missed any injuries with his self-healing. When they deem him fine, they both wrap him in a fierce hug that looks like they're aiming to cripple him again.

Yai speaks first through blubbering sobs, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I wasn't more help and you had to fight on your own! I'm sorry you got hurt! I'm--" He's cut off by Ginhi's hand gently covering his mouth.

When he's sure no more words are going to pour out, Ginhi pulls his hand away and pats Yai's head comfortingly. "Not your fault."

Yai sobs again. "You and Kaen keep saying that."

"'Cause it's true."

Yai says nothing and buries his head against his shoulder.

"I'm glad you're okay too, Ginhi."

Ginhi looks up at Kaen with his emotionless eyes and nods to them.

They pull back a little and frown a bit. "I'm sorry to ask you this so soon after you've just recovered, but can you remember--"

Ginhi straightens. "What attacked us in the troll's caves, of course. They were--" He cuts himself off, head tilting to one side.

Kaen and Yai free him from their arms, giving him room as they look at him questioningly.

Without waiting for them to ask, Ginhi turns abruptly and rushes into your workshop, curtain flapping behind him. Kaen and Yai go after him, Kenma also quick to follow and the other champions behind him. The workshop isn't big enough to hold all of them and so a few are forced to stand just outside the doorway with crossed arms or up on tip toe.

Ginhi is flinging things from a haphazard pile in one corner and he only moves a few before he finds what he's searching for as it's been recently unearthed, a shallow silver basin. It resonates lowly in his hands, a few echoes every half-minute.

At the sight of it and the sound of it ringing, Kaen is off to where they know you keep a pitcher of water on hand.

Yai stares at it with wide eyes, clutching the blanket tighter around himself. "Is that...?"

Ginhi sets it down on a relatively clear spot on a table. "A talking pool, yes."

"But who would be calling?"

Neither Shikigami answers him and all the apprentices are deathly quiet, watching the goings-on raptly. Kaen comes over and pours a small amount of water into the basin, setting the pitcher aside and touching the basin's outer base with three fingers. "I accept the call."

The water in the basin darkens to black in under a second.

Swiping at whoever's closest to them Kaen hastily retreats. "Everyone get back!"

Everyone obeys then puts even more distance between the basin and themselves when a black sludge covered hand rises up from it. It ascends slowly, tar shining as it drips over a revealed wrist, then forearm, elbow... When everything below the bicep is out, the arm levers until the five fingered hand grasps the edge of the basin.

They back up again when the hand grips and tenses, a shoulder breaking the surface, then a head, another shoulder moves up and the sludge covered thing squeezes its other arm through to latch that onto the basin's edge as well.

Hinata, simmering with a low heat and the drive to protect his friends, maneuvers past them but before he can break away Kaen holds out a hand in front of him.

Surprised, he looks up to see their narrowed gaze trained on the thing climbing out of the basin.

"Wait," their voice is a quiet murmur.

It's using both arms to pull its torso out and it holds that position for a second, arms buckling with the strain, until it tips the basin off the table with a purposeful throw of its weight. It lands with a thump and the basin clangs noisily, none of the dark sludge spilled from it despite being on its side. The thing curls in on itself in pain for a moment and then frantically pushes at the basin to pull itself free. Hips, thighs, knees, it starts to kick. The basin clatters away from it, sludge turning back to clear water now that it's not in contact with whatever it is and goes sloshing everywhere.

Similarly, the sludge over the form disappears with a pop once they're free, revealing the creature, the person, beneath as they take a loud gasping breath.

A short dress made of moss does little to cover their form but it's aided by the long leaves wrapped strategically around places in a way that looks like- because they _are_ \- bandages. The thickest being around their wrists, ankles, their torso- right over their heart, and around their head, over their right eye. Their hair is, oddly enough, actually burnt. From the ends all the way up until an inch from their scalp.

They lay sprawled over the floor and take a deep breath, releasing it with a heavy groan.

The three Shikigami immediately swarm them, Yai and Kaen practically in tears while Ginhi frowns heavily in concern.

The apprentices look on in various states of shock, but it's Sugawara, eyes wide and a hand pressed to his mouth, who speaks first, breaking the silence that had descended while this person broke free of the talking pool.

"Oh my gods, (Y/n)!"

You throw a hand over your mouth while the other curls around your stomach. "I never want to look at another xuaren fruit again."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? Safe and sound. You _are_ Yevoll's greatest Sorceress, you didn't think I was gonna let you suffer for long, did you? Of course I won't!
> 
> **I just needed to prove a point.**
> 
> The man with purple eyes means business, and he's dangerous. Keep that in mind.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai and Ginhi.


	11. Planning a Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The xuaren fruit is a curious plant found solely within Forest Nymph territory. Where most of its brethren offer out fruit freely to spread their seeds, the xuaren plant hides its fruit away underneath multiple layers of leaves that are believed to have extremely beneficial healing properties. In fact, the leaves are more useful than the fruit itself which tastes remarkably like the soiled bandages of a Knight unfortunate in battle with the texture of... pulpy coral.
> 
> -From an analysis of a regretful female Botanist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more after this!

"I never want to look at another xuaren fruit again," you whine, still gasping for breath. That climbing out of the talking pool trick is useful but you can't breathe while pulling yourself through.

"Xuaren fruit? You were with the female Dryads?" Kaen flicks worried eyes over your bandages.

"Yeah, they--" You cut yourself off with a gasp and lurch upright, spitting out a curse as your hand flies to you chest wound. "Help me up. I have to call them before they flip out when they find me gone."

All three Shikigami move to help you. Kaen and Yai getting you to your feet and Ginhi moving to pick up the discarded basin. When he sets it in front of you, you tear off small pieces of your moss dress and leaf bandaging, dropping them into it, and with a small spark of (f/c) you slice open a finger to add a few drops of blood before Kaen can stop you.

"(Y/n)!"

You ignore them, picking up the pitcher from where they left it and filling the talking pool. It ripples for a few moments and when it chimes there's a beautiful woman in the pool with light green skin that darkens to olive around her shoulders and hands, and amber eyes. Her hair is made up of vines, interwoven with moss and small flowers, and they shift in surprise along with her expression when she sees you. When she chirps irritably at you, her mouth opens to reveal row after row of the sharp thorns she has for teeth.

"Lilith,"

She calms some at the greeting.

"I'm sorry for the abrupt departure but if I'm going to plan a sufficient counterattack I need to do it from my Keep."

A few apprentices shift in place. Counterattack?

You smile down at her. "Thank you all so much for your hospitality. I am deeply indebted to you."

You pause and smile wider when she chirrups back a few times, also smiling, but it weakens when her chirrups turn into enthusiastic screeches with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Of course, I'll let you know if I find the opportunity."

She nods sharply and waves as the call ends and you flop onto the table with another groan. "Why do these girls like to maim things so much?"

Kaen narrows their eyes down at you. "Were they the ones who did this?"

"No!"  
"No."

You and Ginhi look to each other and then you look back at Kaen, propping yourself up and shaking your head. "The Nymphs were the ones who found me after I escaped," You gesture at your bandages. "They patched me up as best they could, not knowing a whole lot about humans."

"Escape?"

You twitch. Damn, you knew Kaen wouldn't let that go.

"Escape from whom and how...?"

You look away and say nothing.

"(Y/n)?"

"That's..." You glance at your obviously listening apprentices. "Something to be discussed at a later time." You sigh deeply and pick at the dirt covered moss draped over you, trying to ignore the way Kaen's lips thin in displeasure. "Right now I really want to bathe."

They narrow their eyes at you, again. "And exactly _where_ do you plan to bathe?"

You blink at them, slowly. "Star Bay waterfall...?"

They move closer and gently pick up a strand of your burnt hair. "And how exactly do you plan to defend yourself, should you run into trouble, with your magic reserves so low and as injured as you are?"

You grimace. "Aw, Kaen, come on! I've been through a lot today and I just want to stand under the waterfall for a few minutes--"

"I never said you couldn't."

You blink, again. "But- you--"

"I was implying I didn't want you to go alone." They gesture and you follow their arm to--

It's you narrowing your eyes this time, as all your apprentices stand at sudden attention. You slide squinty eyes back to Kaen who looks down at you with a suspiciously sly expression.

"Oh no, I know what you're trying to do here, Kaen."

"And whatever could that be?"

"You've been dropping hints the entire time! You--" You stop on a dime and whirl on the other two Shikigami. "Did one of you put them up to this?!"

Ginhi stares at you blankly and Yai looks at you with an amused expression. You eye him distrustfully and he quickly holds up his hands in surrender just as you catch Ginhi's lip twitch up out of the corner of your eye.

You point at him accusingly. "It was you!"

"A pack is at its strongest with a powerful Alpha pair leading them," he says solemnly in response.

"G-Ginhi!" you splutter angrily.

"But. It was not my idea."

You deflate in confusion.

"Originally."

You spare a glare in his and a giggly Yai's direction before turning it to a still smug Kaen. You don't even care who came up with it first anymore, just, "Why?"

They hold you by the shoulders, a serious air surrounding them. "Because _you_ need to calm down for a moment."

You quirk a brow but they go on before you can ask.

"When all your champions got here, what did you do?"

That one brow is still high. "Heal them?"

"Yes," they stretch it out, as that's true but not the answer they were looking for. "And then, your own magic put you in a five-day coma to repair all the stress you put on your body by staying awake an almost complete month!" Their jaw, voice, and hands on your shoulders are tight with heavy concern by the time they're finished.

And you crumple under the weight of it. "I--"

"And even before that," they talk over you. "You would run yourself ragged hovering over those crystal balls and experimenting with tonics for the smallest ailments for _days_ ," They pause as they suck in a small breath, grip on your shoulders easing as they move their hands to hover over your bandages. "And now you're _injured_."

"Kaen--"

"Just, _please_ ," They stroke your cheek with a thumb and smile softly. "Take it easy and give yourself a chance to heal before you do anything else."

You twist your lips in uncertainty.

Kaen sighs. "You were already planning something, weren't you?"

"Weeelll..."

"(Y/n)--"

"Nonono, I was, _kinda_ , already planning a little trip to--" You pause and glance at your very much eavesdropping apprentices. You lean in and whisper the rest to Kaen, their eyes lighting up as you do. "I need to talk to Din anyway, so if you could--"

"Write up some letters and send them?" Kaen smiles and you smile back, relieved. "Of course. I'll just add on to those letters you never got around to sending."

You grimace. "Crap. Never did send those, did I?"

"You had a lot going on," they comfort.

"Yeah, but _they_ don't know that." You sigh running a hand through your hair and eyeing the ends curled around your fingers before dropping it and turning to smile at the boys. "Find some swim trunks, I guess?"

There are a few _loud_ cheers, enough for you to flinch back, and they talk excitedly amongst themselves as they head back to their rooms.

"I can finally work on my tan some more, Iwa-chan!"

"Wow, that's great! I don't care."

"Iwa-chan!"

"Me and Noya would so beat your guys' asses in a chicken fight!"

"We were undefeated in Tift, ya know!" He and Tanaka do some kind of weird friendly handshake with flailing limbs and lots of grunting.

"Ha! Me and Akaashi can take you guys any day of the week!" Bokuto slings an arm around his friend with a competitive grin.

"I'm not participating in roughhousing, Bokuto-san." You ignore the glance Akaashi directs at you as Hinata reassures a sulking Bokuto that he'll team up with him.

You're really glad you bartered with those Brownies in Yafrosit for enough enchanted drawers and armoires for all of them. Any clothes they might need anytime they need them whenever they're opened. Stress over clothes shopping not needed.

You snort as a small shoving match breaks out between Hinata and Kageyama and turn to find some swimclothes for yourself but pause when you catch sight of Yai and Ginhi.

You walk over and hug them tight. "I'm glad you two are alright."

Their arms wrap around you in turn and you hear Yai let out a happy sniff. "We're glad you're okay too, (Y/n)."

Ginhi bends down to nuzzle the side of his face into yours. "Lady Sorceress, I--"

"Are safe and in one piece," You nuzzle him back. "That's all that matters." You pull back to give him a smile. "Keep him safe too, okay?"

He bows his head with a rare smile. "Of course, Lady Sorceress."

"Ha! You _have_ to call me by my name now that you're Kenma's Shikigami! No more formal titles~"

You grin at Ginhi's conflicted look while Yai snickers at him and Kaen smiles at the three of you.

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forest Nymphs and female Dryads are the same in this world! It's just a matter of preference of person to person as to how they're referred, the actual beings themselves don't care either way.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai and Ginhi.


	12. Gotta Love Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today Navirie introduced me to the one who'll look after me from now on since--
> 
> (A few words are crossed out frantically and smeared with tear stains.)
> 
> He said her name is Stella.
> 
> -From the Diary of a young Sorceress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna go back in time a little bit, but this is important so don't skip!

Your stomach twists like some outside force is trying to wring it out and in the next moment you're on your hands and knees tossing out everything you've eaten in the past day. You groan in misery between heaves and curse the beings attached to the high-pitched cackles that echo a few meters away.

"And _that_ ," Stella tells you in monotone a safe distance from the splash zone. "Is why we don't accept food from the Imps."

You let out another moan before you heave again.

~

You're still moaning but face down on your bed this time.

You feel a small red spark at the corner of your senses and Kaen comes in and sets something on the end table next to you. "I don't know how many times I've warned you to stay away from magical riff raff like them. This is the universe proving me right."

You turn your head enough to see that they've brought in a tray with a glass of ginger root and a tiny loaf of stale bread. You weakly paw at the air near the glass and Kaen takes pity on you, picking it up and handing it over. You bring it close and groan when you realize this isn't gonna work unless you sit up. Sighing, Kaen again helps you but you frown at the faint amusement at your situation you see in their eyes.

"You know if they heard you, they'd make sure you end up far worse than I fair now." Kaen frowns and you smile, taking a sip of the drink and sighing with relief as it calms your revolting stomach. "Besides, hanging out with them is worth the risk of their pranks and they're not nearly as bad as you and Stella say they are."

"That's because they've taken a liking to you, fortunately. If you didn't share their sense of humor you'd end up with a lot worse than extreme nausea."

"Oh yeah?" you snort into your cup. "Like what? Aching ears from constant nagging?"

"More like severed fingers and toes or missing limbs," Kaen says softly, gravely.

You pause with the ginger root caressing your upper lip and swallow the suddenly heavy mouthful you just took before setting down your glass. The drink seems to be doing the opposite of its job right then, you'll get back to it later.

"That's… interesting. Wonder why they tolerate me."

"A mystery," Kaen hums but something in their eyes tells you it's not much of one to them. "It's time for your lessons, Stella is in the yard."

"Right…" You look around yourself, feeling like you're missing something before you shake your head and stand up. "Right."

~

Blasts of indigo light hit you in your shoulder, chest, and face in rapid succession and you fall back with a pained cry, landing roughly on your arm and feeling pain branch out from your elbow. "Fuck!"

"Language," Stella calls languidly, indigo curling around her fingers. "Come on, get up. Again."

"Can I just, like, take a quick five second break?"

In reply, a small wave of blasts singe a line up the side of your leg and you grit out a long line of expletives as you curl up defensively. "Five seconds is your death in battle. Now get up."

You let out a long exhale as you get to your feet and when you look at her your eyes are glowing (f/c).

Stella inclines her head, face impassive. "Again."

~

You muffle your giggles with a hand while leaning against the wall adjacent to Stella's workshop.

This was going to be great! You had discovered a disguised fire pixie in the markets and in gratitude of you not revealing their identity and even helping them keep their identity a secret while they bartered rather heatedly with the merchants, which was not easy, they had given you the greatest material for a prank you could get your hands on.

There's a clink in the room and you go quiet as you wait. The clicking of a knob turning, the small whoosh of fire--

Deafening popping sounds and bright flashes of light stream out to you and you slap a hand over your mouth at the terrified screech you hear.

Your shoulders shake while the popping and lights die down and there's silence for a moment.

" _(Y/N)!!!!_ "

Choking your laughter back, you scramble away as quietly as you can. Another visit to the market today sounds pretty good, yeah.

~

"Well, hello there, angelfish."

You blink a couple times, before turning- and then looking down.

Sprawled in the shallow cove at your bare feet, tailfin curling and flipping coquettishly, is a really cute merman. He grins at your stunned look and winks. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Um… keeping cool? The sun's oppressive today."

"What a good idea." He blinks when you don't move from where you are. "What's the matter? Change your mind about the swim?"

"Yeah, kinda. To be completely honest with you, my mentor told me I should never go in the water with merpeople until I'm more competent."

His tail flexes behind him and he lazily reaches for your toes. "Who says you're not competent now?"

You follow his hand with your eyes but it doesn't actually touch you. "Me."

He pauses. "How mature."

You snort. "Yeah, no. I just know my limits."

His teal eyes flick up to stare deeply into yours and then trail off. You follow them to the waterfall.

"The PeaceKeeper." His murmur brings your eyes back to him. He looks awed by you as you were of him when you first saw him. "You are--"

"(Y/n)!" You turn to see Stella quickly walking toward you with a deep frown.

A splash catches your ear and you look back to see a red tail disappear under the waves.

Stella seems to have spotted it as well. "Was that a mer? What have I told you about swimming with them?"

"I wasn't swimming with him." She pointedly glances over your water frolicking clothes. "I was going to swim but then he came up and I didn't. My clothes aren't even wet."

"But your feet are. You're lucky he wasn't of the siren faction, he could've dragged you in easily."

"He kinda seemed like he was at first," You recall him reaching for you. "But then he looked over at the waterfall and got distracted by some peace keeping something."

Stella freezes. "He said that?"

You eye her. "Yes. Why?"

She looks away. "Nothing. Next time you come out here, bring Kaen with you. They'll ward off the more perilous creatures. It's dangerous to be alone."

You nod and let the subject drop as you follow her back to the Keep.

~

You stand, eyes closed and a deep grimace on your face, before the elven High Court.

A stunningly attractive elf around your age, a terribly awkward 14, walks up to you and asks you for directions in one of the forests leading to Pnas, so of course you give them to him. …While idly complimenting his looks.

Turns out elves take those kinds of things very seriously, especially elf royalty of which he just so happens to be THE PRINCE, and since he also has a small attraction to you he leads you back to his home once you guide him to familiar territory to casually go get married.

Underneath your leaf green hood, because elves have hoods instead of veils, you feel as if your anxiety is going to stream out of your eyes into rivers on your face. Why? Why you? Married at fourteen, _what is your life?_

A swirl of indigo and you've never wanted to cry at the sight of your mentor more. Except, you know, this time it's in relief.

"Stop the ceremony," her voice is not timid in the least, even among all these high-standing elves, and her back is tall with authority. "These two are not meant for each other."

One elf stands from her seat, her throne, and you vaguely remember her from your fear-hazed introductions as the mother of your… betrothed, the Queen. "Who are you to stand in the way of these happy nuptials?"

"I am the girl's Mentor and her guardian." Stella's eyes burn fiercely. "Strangely enough, I received no invitation to this event, nor have I given my blessing."

"The blessed one should be you to have your little one welcomed to the Royal family."

"But she is already blessed herself."

The Queen raises a brow. "How so?"

"She is titled the PeaceKeeper."

A quiet roar of whispers rise among the elves and the Queen turns surprised eyes at you, along with her son.

"You are the PeaceKeeper?" he whispers with awe.

"Uuuhhh…" You look to Stella and she gives you a subtle nod. "Yeeuuup," you pop the p. "Thaaat's me. Heh."

Every elf in the room bows low to you and your eyes go wide.

"Forgive me, had I known I would have never made such a forward proposition." He grins cheekily. "It seems I have little control around beautiful ladies."

You flush and the Queen coughs pointedly, making her son jump. "My son has little control with impulses of the heart, we usually indulge him until he returns to reality and then return his brides back to the other humans."

"That brings to mind so many questions," you whisper.

"Such as what?" You jump. Okay, elves have excellent hearing, noted.

"Well, first," You turn a suspicious eye to the Prince. "Do you just have a thing for humans, or what?"

He grins again and shrugs.

"Okay, whatever. Second," You give the Queen a disbelieving look. " _Brides?_ As in multiple?"

"Yes?"

"That's-" You make a strangled sound to convey your bogglement. "Doesn't that kinda undermine the seriousness of marriage?"

"How would it? Marriage gives two people an opportunity to love each other."

You furrow your brows. "Can't you do that by just talking?"

"Talking?"

"Yeah, you know, getting to know each other by being friends. And then if further feelings develop you date, or court, however you guys say it, and then if they decide they can truly commit to loving each other they get married."

"And this is how humans court each other?"

"Yes."

"How do they develop feelings so quickly?"

"They don't? It usually takes a long time for there to be an interest in a relationship. Depending on the person it can last from months to years."

"Why so much time? Humans are short-lived, are they not?"

"Why wouldn't we put that much time into it? Friends themselves, even without potential attraction, are dear people that you want to spend time with. And we're short-lived, yeah, so that makes time itself precious, and a treasure when given to those you hold in high regard."

She nods solemnly. "As much as this advice is. We heed your words, PeaceKeeper,"

Whoa, wait, what? Why does that sound so official?

"We shall try this _talking_ the next we interact with humans." She keeps her eyes on her son as she says this. She then smiles at you and Stella. "And your wisdom gives legitimacy to your guardian's claims. We return you without fuss, little one, and we thank you for your visit, however unexpected it was for both of us, and welcome you back always."

You blink a few times in confusion but Stella picks up your slack, walking over to you and bowing to the Queen as she takes your arm. "Thank you for the gracious offer, Your Majesty. We'll now be on our way."

Your sight is relinquished to a swirl of indigo.

~

"Stella?"

She pauses on her way back to her workshop, raising a brow. "Gonna tell me how you're sorry for flirting with strangers?"

You snort. "They're only strangers until you get to know them." You look down. "I wanted to ask… What's a PeaceKeeper?"

She's quiet.

"You said something about it before. And those elves…" Their Queen had bowed to you.

"The PeaceKeeper is an old legend. A Princess… chased from her castle is raised in seclusion and becomes the link between magical creatures and humans. The key to both understanding each other."

"And I'm her?"

"…No. You're just a very unlucky Princess."

~

"Stella! Stella, no! Please don't do this! Don't leave me alone!"

"Don't do this, (Y/n)," her voice is just as pained as her expression. You know she hates tears, emotional tears, so you use them at full force. "You'll have Kaen, come on."

"No! I won't let you go! I won't!"

"(Y/n)--"

You grip her cloak tight. "I don't want to lose anyone again…"

"Kid…" With a sigh, she kneels down to be level with you and smiles. "I'm not going to disappear. I'll just be gone for a little bit."

"Liar."

"Nope. You wanna know why?"

You nod, sniffling.

"Because I'm magic, just like you. And anyone who has even the tiniest bit of magic is never gone for long. They'll show up again sooner or later." She cards her hand through your hair. "So, the quicker you let me go, the quicker I'll be back, okay?"

"…Okay."

When you see the barrier go up, in her terrifying, comforting, beautiful color, loud, gut-wrenching sobs claw their way up your throat to pour out of your lips, the same way your tears do from your eyes, now useless but coming in torrents regardless. Knowing she can't hear you anymore, you scream that she's a liar to the barrier.

And from that day on, you don't love magic as much as you used to. You don't hate it, exactly, it just… loses its luster.

No longer does it inspire wonder. You tolerate it to uphold Stella's legacy.

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this is the last one!
> 
> It might be a while until I can update because I'm working on another creature sketch, but fear not! I already have reference photos picked out and that's usually the longest part for me.
> 
> Thank you for always being so patient~! You guys are the best, I swear. (And you're enablers to my procrastinating ass. XD)
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai, Ginhi and Stel-LLLLAAAAAAAAA.


	13. Badgered Under the Waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's a phenomenal honor, to guard this cave. It's where great ones go to rest and the PeaceKeeper will come one day, and it will be your job to take her there."
> 
> -A Mer father, when passing down the duties of CaveWatcher to his guppies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **TRIGGER WARNINGS**
> 
>  
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>  
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> **ENCLOSED SPACES UNDERWATER. PANIC ATTACKS CAUSED BY PREVIOUS TRAUMA.**
> 
>  
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> **PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!**
> 
>  
> 
>  _Guuuuyyyysss,_  
> 
> I'm so stad, stoked and sad. Only a few chapters until the end of the first Act of Book 2. _Do you know what that means??!_ The story's halfway done, guys. *garbled choked noise* *grabs a tissue and honks into it* Completely disregarding how many actual chapters there are, I mean. The story itself, half of the major milestones, are done. I- I just... _I'm feeling emotions right now, okay?!_ *honks into tissue again*
> 
> Btw, this chapter, mostly the Mer parts, are entirely ShySkyPirate's fault.

"There we go." Kaen combs their fingers through your hair one last time. They had trimmed all the burnt parts off for you and now it's short, extremely short, like, just barely long enough to style.

They brush a hand over the bandage around your eye. As much as you didn't want them to see it, you had a bit of trouble wrapping it yourself with your compromised depth perception so they had to help you and saw... everything. You had kept it closed, but the eyelid is sunken in where the eye itself is missing and the capillaries connected to where your eye used to be are dyed a sickly dark grey and branch out to just below your eyebrow and just above your cheekbone. Kaen had wrapped every sign of it up with a heartbroken expression, the same one they wear now.

You gently touch their hand and they stop the unconscious motion, stepping back. "Right," They take a breath. "Now, don't forget, _no waterfall_. The water pressure could open up your wounds. So just head to Diamond Creek. There's less chance of running into wildlife that way too."

"Yes, Kaen, we got it." You smile up at them. "Don't worry, we'll be perfectly fine."

You and the boys head off, phasing through your wards.

~

Yai, Ginhi, and Kaen all sit around the kitchen table. In the wake of what Ginhi's just shared, they all stare down at either the table itself or the steaming drinks Kaen prepared for them all.

Ginhi is lightly frowning, Yai looks nauseous, and Kaen is frowning as well, though theirs is tinged with fury.

They sigh deeply. "That is... worrying. If your suspicions are correct, then this far surpasses the acceptable limits of Black Magic into..."

"The Forbidden Works," Ginhi is the only one unhesitant to finish.

Yai shudders hard, absolute terror plain on his face from the way the whites of his eyes form a complete ring around his iris, looking very much like a frightened version of his animal counterpart. "What are we supposed to do?"

Kaen's brow puckers. "Normally, in situations like this, we'd report to the witch with the highest standing in Yevoll, but with Stella gone..."

Yai looks at them unsurely. "Then it would fall to (Y/n), right?"

"No." They shake their head firmly. "She's far too young and--"

"The most powerful magic user in the country." Kaen and Yai look to Ginhi. "Not to mention the only one who really gives a damn about the fate of it, nowadays."

"And what exactly should we expect her to do, once we tell her?" Kaen glares at him. "Face this unnamed rogue with no real experience in battling another magic user? Protect the entirety of Yevoll's non-magic users alone?"

"She's not alone," Kaen turns their glare to Yai but he does nothing but flinch before he goes on. "She has us. And Koku, should it come to that."

"Not only that, but all magical beings, to some extent. Especially when she comes into her own," Ginhi shoots a pointed look at Kaen but they look away. "And her apprentices."

"I have to say, that was some mighty good foresight on her end," Yai turns to Kaen. "Do you think she knew?"

"...She told me of her dreams. Of a man with purple eyes..."

Ginhi and Yai's brows furrow.

Kaen looks up with a scowl. "And she told me that she _knew_ she couldn't handle it alone. She told _them_ that, that was the entire reason for their apprenticeship!" They shake their head. "And now you're telling me you expect a _seventeen-year-old_ and a bunch of other untrained teenagers to deal with someone who could cause the downfall of an entire country? No, not an option."

"Then what _are_ we supposed to do? The Council disappeared long ago, we're on our own in this."

Kaen keeps shaking their head, "I don't know."

~

Crystal Clearing is beautiful. It's surprisingly normal colored compared to the wacky shades of things found in the Topsy Tropics. The green grass is long enough to brush against your calves and there are tiny, but harmless, flowers that pop up here and there. The creatures that live here are tiny as well and _very_ adept at hiding so the more dangerous creatures don't bother coming here to hunt, leaving a calm atmosphere.

When you get to the side of the clearing opposite your keep, Diamond Creek is also just as beautiful as you remember. It's _crystal clear_ (get it?) and the small waves that ripple with the current shine as bright as a diamond, hence the name.

The water looks plenty refreshing and cool, too, if the happy splashing of your more impatient apprentices is anything to go by.

"So," Daichi speaks calmly after a while. "Why are we still walking when we've already reached the creek?"

"Because Kaen should know they should get a fully worded promise out of me if they really want me to not do something I want to." You smile to yourself a bit. "I really appreciate what the Fae taught me sometimes."

"Never took you for a rulebreaker," Kuroo says with a sly smirk from a little ways off.

"Rule _bending_ , not breaking. There's a difference."

"B-but shouldn't we stick to where it's safer since we don't have any weapons?" stutters Yamaguchi, "Or, you know, armor maybe?"

"We'll be fine," You strut confidently through the dewy grass at the creek's edge, water droplets chilling your calves with every step. "I've been studying the creatures here long enough to know they have a sort of truce near anywhere with a large enough water source, including Diamond Creek and where we're going."

"And that would be...?" Tsukishima drawls.

You grin. "Star Bay."

"Wait," Suga says, narrowing his eyes in thought. "That sounds familiar..."

"Isn't that the place with the waterfall?" Yaku remembers. "The one Kaen-san said you shouldn't go in?"

You take a sudden interest in the Creek, just in time to see Hinata and Kageyama cannonball into it to see who can make the largest splash. You deadpan as Tanaka, Noya, Inuoka, Lev, and Bokuto all crack up at the face the two make at the cold water.

Noya and Tanaka realize then that you're looking and straighten to flex into cool poses for your viewing pleasure. You have to admit, their torsos are finely muscled, but the poses are _so_ ridiculous you end up snorting a laugh. They only take it as encouragement and do several more flexes while drifting in the creek's current that flows in the same direction you're all walking.

Snickering, you subtly twist your fingers and smile innocently as all your apprentices watch a section of the creek rise up and hesitate over the two showboating boys just long enough for them to notice it before crashing down on them.

The other boys laugh as they sputter and wipe the water from their eyes before staring up at you in shock.

Holding back cackles, you hold a hand over your mouth with a small gasp and look over at Oikawa, who was walking pretty close to you, with amused reproach. "Oikawa, how could you!"

He whips around form where he was watching the happenings with faint amusement and lets out an offended squawk. "That was _not_ me!"

You blink up at him with a wide innocent eye. "If not you, then who could have done it?"

He gapes down at you in outrage.

"There suddenly seems to be this _space_ between what we are talking about and what we should be," Suga holds his chin as he hums sarcastically. "Could it be, a _void_ ance?"

You take a turn at gaping up at Suga. "Did you just..?"

Roaring with laughter, Daichi smacks Suga's hand for a high-five that he held up without moving his faintly smirking eyes from yours. " _Nice_ , Suga."

You scoff, amused despite yourself. "Figures _Dadchi_ would like puns," This earns a few loud snorts and only Asahi cuts himself off in the face of Daichi's glare. You hold a faint hand to your chest. "But _Suga!_ Such sass, I expect more from you!"

Said sassmaster stares at you blankly, unimpressed. "You're still dodging the question." His brow furrows in worry. "They said something about your wounds possibly reopening--"

"Which I don't have to worry about, because I have a handsome Healer monitoring my condition, right?" You bat your eye up at him.

He still frowns, despite the blush that paints his face. "'Healer' might be pushing it. I've never successfully healed someone before."

"You read the medical books I gave you, right? Especially the parts about the vasculatory system and musculature that I flagged?" You smack him encouragingly in the arm when he nods. "Then you'll be fine. Plus, I'll literally be _right there_ to help you if you need it."

"Speaking of books," Akaashi drawls casually from where he's kicking idly in the shallows of the creek as he walks. You keep your body relaxed as you raise a brow at him, but your mind is on guard. "Kaen gave me this very interesting book to read--"

"Sshh."

His eyes snap up from where he was tracking the ground moving beneath him, offended and taken aback. The apprentices walking with you are only bemused at your interruption.

"That's not--"

You shush him into silence again, more urgently. You heard it, you're sure you did. You wouldn't have if you were any less tense. Your functioning eye darts wildly through the thick trees on the other side of the creek as you call out quietly to the boys frolicking in the water, "Guys? Might want to come ashore for a bit, get some steady legs under you."

Some of your apprentices pick up on your tone and make their way out of the water, while the ones near you tense and follow your eye to the jungle.

"Aww, why? I was just getting ready to dunk Kageyama!"

"What?! Dumbass--"

A section of jungle implodes as something huge and dark green with big claws and teeth leaps out of it, aiming right for Hinata, Kageyama, Bokuto, Tanaka, and Noya who had yet to fully get out of the creek.

You blast it with fire, the magic coming to the forefront with your panicked desire to protect your apprentices, but with only one eye your aim is off, the rapidly approaching creature messing with your depth perception. The bleeding crimson fireball hits the beast's shoulder instead of its face, but still manages to knock it off-course away from the boys and into the creek with a splash, dazed and reeling on it side, giving you the chance to actually see what you're dealing with.

You swiftly pale when you do. " _Shiiiit,_ " you hiss with no little frustration. You grab the person nearest to you- Suga- and push him parallel to the creek, in the direction that leads away from the Keep. "Run, all of you," you whisper just loud enough for the group near you to hear. "Get to the Bay and hide there until I arrive." You gather power around your hands and they glow a soft (f/c). "I'll get the others and catch up soon."

Yaku shoots you a surprised glare. "What?"

Oikawa grabs your shoulder, "We can help--"

You shake off his hand and give them both a sharp look. "Listen to your mentor and go, _**now**_ **.** " A flash of (f/c) from your eyes cements your vehemency.

You turn with a scowl when there's another hand on your shoulder, the touch overly light, but pause at the reassuring smile Daichi gives you. "We understand." He turns to the others. "Let's go guys."

A few make to protest, most notably Oikawa with a genuine frown on his face, but they're maneuvered into behaving by some of the more sensible, including Akaashi, who goes for Oikawa himself.

You blink at him and he gives you a look as he pushes the older boy away. "Our conversation isn't over."

"I know," you sigh, and wave a hand at them.

To your eye they all have a faint iridescence to them now, but to anyone or any _thing_ else nothing is there. Very useful, but this charm only works for eyes, not for keen noses or natural heat sensors, so you'll need to provide a distraction.

The creature you're facing is a hybrid of a honeybadger and a green tree pit viper. Its body is almost entirely that of the honeybadger, only its fur is in shades of green to help it camouflage, its tail is the pit viper itself, the badger's belly is lined with flexible scales, and the fangs in the badger's mouth are those of a viper while the fangs in the viper's mouth are as they should be but you suspect are the only ones able to secrete a paralyzing venom, hopefully that only works if injected into the body with a bite, instead of just skin contact.

Your fireball was powerful enough to daze it, but it's slowly sloshing to its feet again, emitting a low, irritated hiss of a growl.

You hurry over to the five boys who by now have made it to the creek's bank and they turn wide eyes from the creature to you.

"What is that?!"

"Where are the others?"

"Ohmygods, what do we do?!"

"Shh!" You cover the mouths of the nearest louder ones, Hinata and Noya, who blush and swoon respectively. You give them a look before removing your hands and luckily they stay quiet. "Here's what we're gonna do, okay?"

They nod.

"Stick close to me and _do not use any magic._ Just run and dodge."

Already there are complaints.

"No way! But I have really good control of my fire now--"

"--Let me zap it to a crisp!--"

"--I can help him!--"

"--But I wanna fight too!--"

"--Surely, there must be some way we can help--"

"No!" you hiss, "No, there's not. Because not even I can stand a real chance against--" You look behind your apprentices at a loud enraged bark and see the creature barreling towards all of you, looking for a fight.

You jump towards them and when you're sure some part of you is touching each of them, you _pull_. The world swirls black and (f/c), your breath is knocked from your lungs, and your ears are ringing like someone decided to knell a giant bell with your head.

When there's ground under your feet again, you stumble, several hands reaching out to stable you. You and the boys are now a good distance away from the creature, who bashes at the ground in confused frustration, leaving a sizable sinkhole where all of you once stood. Your vision is swimming so you grab for the nearest shoulder and, after deeming it strong enough to hold your weight, promptly collapse on it. You point downstream, the direction your other apprentices should have gone. You can no longer see them, either because you're too disorientated or because they're already out of sight. "Get to the Bay," you slur tiredly.

You can hear Kageyama's furrowed brow when he asks, "Shouldn't we return to the Keep?"

"No. Badgers and badger hybrids are stubborn, vicious little fucks and just determined enough to break through any ward when angered," You groan lightly, pressing your forehead into the dip of whoever's shoulder. "Which is what tends to happen, when you don't check what you're dealing with before throwing a fireball at it."

"So fireballs are definitely bad in this situation," Hinata asks.

"Any offensive magic in this situation is bad," you answer, nudging the boy who's holding you into moving by shuffling forward. All the boys follow, sticking close like you said, and when your eye stops spinning in favor of just being blurry, you let go of your support to kick into a light jog, the others picking up their pace to match you. "In anything involving even a regular, non-mutated badger, I recommend running, and with the one after us now--"

There's a loud roar behind all of you.

"Run faster!" You take your own advice, eyesight clear with fear-based adrenaline pumping through your veins, and the pounding of feet from either side of you lets you know the boys have as well. The steady pounding falters when the earth shakes underneath you, the quakes coming two at a time in beat with the running steps of the badger-snake-thing. You do your best to run as stably as you can and glance quickly to either side of you to see the boys are keeping up too.

The earth then _heaves_ so strongly under you that it seems to just drop out from under your feet, and you land face first into the ground. Your name is called all around you as you scramble to your feet; hands, knees, an elbow, your chin, _and_ nose throbbing dully, but you pause when you notice the badger's footsteps have gone silent. The boys surround you and pull you up and after them as they circle up around you protectively and you run with them but your head darts this way and that because _you still can't hear it, where did it go?!_

There.

A subtle, constant rumble that's barely audible over the sound of pounding footsteps, but you can hear it. You just can't tell _where_ it's coming from--

The ground caves under all of you.

It's so sudden it shocks you into stupidity. You have no clue how to save yourself, how to save _your apprentices_. You're all falling and going to die and it's all your fault. They'll never see their families again and _it's all your fault_. You flail your limbs as the light of the sun gives way to the dank darkness of subterranean earth and a monstrous roar of triumph echoes around you unfettered.

Until it's suddenly muffled and you're caught by amber light.

You have just enough time to wonder in stunned shock what the hell just happened on your hands and knees before five bodies roll into you and send you crashing onto your bruised chin as you're squashed into whatever's holding you all suspended in the air.

"Ow," you wheeze and you feel someone twitch next to you before they hurriedly get off of you.

"(Y/n)-san!" someone, Noya, you think, calls, and he starts to yank at those who're still on you. "Ryuu, come on! We can't let these guys get ahead of us!"

Someone else twitches and another significant amount of weight is relieved off of you and is helping to pull people off you.

You have no idea who's getting ahead of what and you don't care as long as you'll be able to breathe soon, which you are. Everyone is lifted off of you fairly quickly and you sit up, looking around to make sure they're all okay.

The cradle of see-through gold moves then, lifting you away from the slashing claws of the badger creature and back into the sunlight while spears of something hard and what looks like a blackish green through the yellow haze, darts down and strikes several spots near the badger, driving it backwards. When your cradle of safety is lifted fully into the sunlight, you finally see who your saviors are.

"Lev! Inuoka!"

Lev shoots you a strained smile, hands immobile and glowing golden out in front of him where they hold all of you in the air, and Inuoka grins and waves before he fires off a couple more crystals to keep the creature at bay. Lev takes that as his cue to move you all away from the chasm and above the stable ground he and Inuoka stand on, releasing his shield with a relieved breath.

You and the others drop to the ground, and you with your _stupid_ messed up depth perception stumble as the earth comes up under you not at all when you expect, and there are two sets of hands helping you almost before your knees even buckle.

Lifting your head, Bokuto and Lev are squinting at each other and before you can try to parse _that_ out, you hear a shout of triumph and look back just in time to see Inuoka jumping in victory and suddenly you remember,

"Didn't I tell you two to go ahead with the others?" You aim reprimanding glares at the two.

Lev breaks the staring contest with Bokuto to look down at you. "And if we didn't, you guys would've been toast."

You direct the full force of your glare at him for the dirty, dirty _truth_ , but it falters when there's an angered roar and the earth explodes behind you. The gold of Lev's shield immediately covers all of you, except-

"Inuoka!" you shout, panicked.

The dust slowly clears and your apprentices gasp in awe while you slump in relief.

In the rays of sunlight that fight their way through the airborne silt, shining seafoam green refracts the natural spotlight in the shape of a silhouette and Inuoka, now completely crystal through and through, lifts up his hand with wonder and turns it over to inspect it, a muted tinkling ringing out with every move he makes.

"What is this...?"

"Inuoka!" He looks up at your call and when he sees how worried you are, he jogs over, the tinkling a little louder with every running step than it was with his just simply moving his hand.

"Sorry! I think I'm okay," He looks his new form over but with it being new and all the natural facets, it's hard to tell if he's... well, cracked.

You clasp a hand around his wrist and focus on damage, and breathe a little easier when you find none. "You're fine. The crystal you're made from is hard to crack anyway, let alone break. You're pretty much invulnerable right now." He starts to grin but you quickly nip any reckless thoughts in the bud with, "Please don't test it 'cause I'm not entirely sure." Which he slumps and pouts in disappointment at.

Another roar and all of you are running again, you irritatedly explaining why running is a better idea than fighting to Lev and rock-head in between pants for breath and throwing up obstacles for the badger as often as you can, which isn't much, considering how much you stumble and get dizzy whenever you do but your apprentices are right there to put you back on your feet.

You run and run along the creek, and at times it seems like one of you might end up in the badger's claws or impaled on its teeth but your apprentices surprise you with their competence in their magic and you all develop a rhythm. You keep the badger back as long as you can while your apprentices keep you on your feet; you rest, as much as you can while running (keep running, keep moving), and the badger catches up, and then your apprentices blast it far back to keep all of you in the lead.

You repeat this pattern, over and over, and you all reach Star Bay during one of those substantial leads.

You search the area, panting, and your heart drops. "Where are they?"

The bay is large, with three sizable coves that curve inward from the sea that, when combined with the steep coral reef that separates the bay from open water, forms the star shape the bay is named for. In between two of the coves to the SouthWest is the waterfall you were so foolishly anxious to get to, it flows down the small cliff without a discernible source as to where the water comes from, and you still haven't figured that out yet. Despite how many times you've stood under it, though you haven't tried looking in the water around it yet. Actually... you've been to Star Bay plenty of times before but something always seems to distract you before you can get in the water near the waterfall, something... some _one_. But why would Kaen keep you from the water? And just the water around the waterfall, you've swum in other parts of Star Bay many times, it's just that one spot that they've kept you from.

You shake your head to shoo away that line of thought and tear your eye from where it had landed on the waterfall to search the rest of the bay. The bay is large, like you said, so it's not that hard to sweep over its spread out expanse with a glance and figure out your apprentices aren't here. Not even a shimmer of the glamour you put on them, though that should have worn off a while ago.

The badger roars then, getting closer, and your heart starts beating even faster than it already was, a fresh shot of adrenaline layering over dread.

Your _plan_ was to get all your apprentices underwater, as far from the badger's reach as possible, which would be either in the middle of the bay if it really doesn't like water (unlikely, as mad as it is, it would go after you anyway) or out to sea. Open, _deep_ , water. Badgers can swim and so can snakes, but unless the reptile it's fused with is aquatic, that creature isn't very good at diving. Plus, the water will wash away all of your scent. If you all stay hidden long enough, which might be a while badgers _really_ have a terrible temper, _eventually_ it'll lose interest and go away. The matter of you mustering up enough magic to help you and your apprentices breathe underwater for that time is another thing entirely, especially with you having spent so much to keep the badger at bay...

"Hello there, angelfish," You whip around in the direction of the voice towards the water, and then, out of habit of dealing with small creatures, look down when nothing immediately greets your sight. There, floating a little ways further into the cove, is a familiar looking young man. He's blond, with teal eyes... and you remember him all at once when a red tail fin flicks out of the water to wave at you.

"You!" you gasp.

He smiles, "Looks like you could use some help. I have just the place for you and your..." He glances at your apprentices dismissively, gaining a few offended and annoyed glares in addition to the suspicious ones he received upon calling out to you. "Friends. If you don't mind a little swim, that is."

You hesitate. You still haven't found your other apprentices and the creature isn't far behind you. Plus, Stella had a reason for telling you not to swim with the Mer before you could fully utilize your magic to protect yourself. Mer are mischievous, not as much as faeries but pretty close, and, depending on the Mer, willfully murderous, sometimes drowning people just for a laugh. With your magic drained the way it is now, if this Mer decides to make fatal entertainment out of the lot of you, you might not be able to do much once you're on, or rather in, his turf.

The small flicker of doubt you have is quickly extinguished by another roar, this one _much_ closer, and you hurry into the water with large ungraceful steps, your apprentices right behind you. "You know, a swim sounds just lovely right about now. I mean, we're dressed for it anyway, so why not?" All of you except Inuoka, that is. And you turn to him quickly, relying on the bond to him as his mentor to revert him back to his fleshier, less sinkable form.

"Feeling competent, are you?" the merman teases.

You laugh lightly, but it's flat. "I just know I'm not too limited to turn you into sushi if you try to drown any of us." Magic be damned, if he hurts any of them, you _will_ find a way.

"Yes, ma'am," he answers seriously, and with that verbal agreement you duck underwater.

Once you're submerged, you look back to see your apprentices ducking themselves under and when they're underwater with you, you hold out a hand and gesture. They get what you want relatively quickly and link hands, forming a human chain with you at the head and you hold out your other hand to the merman who takes it and tows you all along easily with his strong tail and the aid of the buoyancy of the water.

Instead of pulling you out to sea like you expect, either to get you away from the badger's reach or to pull you to your deaths, he drags you to the other side of the cove where the waterfall is. When you get close enough, you can see a narrow channel just beyond the churning water. He swims to it, and you close your eyes as the troubled water bubbles over your face, down your scalp and back and legs as you go under the waterfall into the small entrance of the underwater cave. You reassuringly tighten your hold on Kageyama's hand when the light of the bay filtering through the water gives way to darkness and use whatever dregs of magic you have left to your apprentices and yourself enough oxygen through the connection holding hands gives you when you figure this to be a longer swim than you thought. You close your eye since it's become useless and focus on keeping hold of the merman and Kageyama as the water flows over you.

Dark,

dark,

dark.

Your hands tighten around the ones in their hold as you flash hot then cold. You maintain the oxygen spell only by virtue of years of training, but you still feel like you can't breathe. You're surrounded by water and yet you can swear you feel a cold sweat starting. In the black behind your closed eyelid, all you can see is the flash of silver from that hellish tool and laughing, sadistic purple eyes.

Your grip turns crushing and the flow of water around you slows. You shake your head, knowing the merman can see you, and you feel the water gradually get back to the same speed it was moving before.

Kageyama grips your hand tight, confused, but you carefully rub the back of his hand with your thumb without letting him go and he squeezes again in acknowledgement.

The Great Protector of Yevoll, scared of the dark. Gods, get it together, (Y/n).

The merman squeezes your hand in silent prompting and you open your eye, spotting a pinprick of light in the gloom and you let out a breath of relief, kicking your feet to help the merman propel you all there faster. The closer you get, the more colors distinguish themselves from the singular brightness; yellow, green, red, purple, blue, orange, violet; until you break the surface of the water into a cave of glowing rainbow lights.

The boys surface around you, the sound of their heads breaking the water and their reflexive gasps of air even though they could breathe before echoing back to you from the cave walls and the surface of the water, and you can sense the merman backing away from you under your apprentices' protective glares, but your eye is wandering around you, above you, at all the different colored, softly glowing _huge_ crystals around you. They hum with magic, their glow dimming and rising like they're breathing, and you should be unsettled because you have no idea what it is, but it's _familiar_. It...

It feels like home.

"What is this place?" Hinata asks with awe before you get the chance to.

"The Cave of Ancients," the merman's low voice skips across the water to answer, and your eye darts to him, mouth open to question--

"(Y/n)!" You quickly turn to where the crystals lead off into a tunnel, where Sugawara hurries over to the edge of the pool you all float in, eyes flicking over all of you, even the merman with a tinge of tempered bewilderment, but mostly on you, the rest of your apprentices that you had sent ahead to Star Bay without you soon appearing after him, expressions of relief lighting up their faces when they see you and their friends.

"Guys," You imagine the relief on your face is also quite plain as you swim up to them, eye moving rapidly to check that they're all there, which they are. "You're okay. Wait, _are_ you okay? Is anyone injured? How did you get here? Where--" Realizing that question is best directed at someone else, you turn a narrowed eye upon the merman. "Where is here? And yes, I heard you say ' _The Cave of Ancients_ ' when Hinata asked before," you say when he opens his mouth. "That tells me nothing because I don't know what that means."

The merman gapes at you. "You don't know?"

You and your apprentices blink at him. "Uh, no?"

"But you're the PeaceKeeper! _The_ \--" He gapes even harder when you only stare at him blankly. "You don't even know what that is, do you?"

"No...?" you trail off and look at him in concern. "Hey, are you alright? You look kinda..."

"The PeaceKeeper has no idea of the role she plays," he wheezes to himself, claws buried in his blond locks, and you only just barely catch the echo of it over the water.

"Did you not see... No, of course you didn't, it was too dark, you--" He smacks his hand over his face. "Oh my gods, did the other witch not tell you?!"

"Tell me what?!" you yell back incredulously.

The crystals around you flare bright, all at once, blinding you dumb and shocking you even dumber when they _speak_ , " _You are the PeaceKeeper._ "

You gape up at the crystals around you. "Whaaaat the _fuck_?" you whisper dazedly.

"Oh good," the merman chirps conversationally. "That means I don't have to be the one to explain, then," And you whip around when you hear a quiet splish, and see absolutely no mermen, only ripples in the water.

A chain of black oaths streams from your mouth, ended by, "How the _hell_ are we supposed to get back, you _fucking codfish?!_ "

"(Y/--"

"I hope the badger fucking--"

"(Y/n)!"

"What!" You turn your irritated glare from the water to Daichi, who doesn't seem to want to take the hint that _you're busy having a moment here_ , but then you see what caused him to call out to you in concern, what still holds his and your other apprentices' wary glare. The crystals are pulsing with light. Bright and dark, in waves, flashing towards the tunnel half the boys came through, a clear pointing finger to where they apparently want you to go. "Oh," you say, now quiet. "That."

You float in the cave's pool for a moment, just staring at them, while your apprentices that are in the water with you pull themselves up onto the cave's stone floor, receiving help from their drier counterparts and wringing out their clothes. Daichi calls your name again, questioningly.

"What lies beyond that tunnel?" you ask, turning slowly in place with a narrowed eye dancing over every crystal it can catch. Glowing, talking crystals. Why would crystals need to talk?

"More crystals, that's pretty much it, but..." You look to see him frowning contemplatively up at the lightshow. "The air in there is... heavier. Gets even heavier the farther you go, we didn't wander that much farther in because of it."

You frown. Magic. In your mind's search for clues as to what's happening, it snags on what the merman called this place. The Cave of Ancients. Ancient what? Crystals? They're so old they developed sentience?

Only one way to get answers, since Mr. scaly-tail decided to split. You swim to the edge of the pool and grab the stone, levering yourself out of the water. Halfway up, you're aided by Kuroo and Yaku on either side and you throw them a small nod of thanks as you shake off some of the excess water from your fingers after combing it out of your hair. "Right, then. Let's go."

The tunnel is curved, where it leads off from the pool room, and remains curved for a long while until it juts off in a sharp turn. Six of them. Right, left, left, right, left; the walls without an inch of space not covered by crystals, all their colors just a single hue different, not a single one the same. The largest ones near the floor standing tall like sentinels, and the smallest ones directly overhead twinkling shyly in imitation of a chandelier. And then you reach a large pentagon-shaped room where the crystals have grown haphazardly compared to the tunnels, their sizes, no matter their location, as random as their colors.

In the center of the room, in a semi-circle with the open ends facing towards the only two exits in the room you can see, are three of the biggest crystals you've seen so far, monolithically tall and blindingly white. Their glow does not ebb and flow like the other crystals around them and instead they shine as eye-wateringly as they can.

They're beautiful, and very attention-grabbing, but for some reason your gaze is pulled down, and there, just barely distinguishable from the ground itself is a small indigo crystal.

It pulses with light faintly when your eye lands on it and the breath is nearly knocked from your lungs because magic, these are definitely magic crystals and _you know that magic_ you grew up with it shaping your own.

You take a small step towards it, tears blurring the sight of your functioning eye and stinging horribly at your missing one, and whisper, "Stella?"

" _Hey, kid._ "

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, that cave, huh? *whistles* I get so happy every time I think about it. All those colors everywhere and the hued lights shining on the surface of the pool. *sighs* If anyone's paid special attention to the maps, you'll remember that the cave (or Ruins, since I hadn't actually decided what that place would look like then, or what it would actually be named) is marked on the map of Solidarity that I put up a while ago, but it's not marked on the actual map the Sorceress showed everyone because its existence was kept secret from her by Stella and Kaen. Just wanted to clear that up.
> 
> Side-note: If they take away Net Neutrality, there is a high chance that I'll disappear from everywhere for a while until there's enough money coming in that I can actually spend more of it on internet, but I will keep updating eventually because _we're so close you guys._
> 
> oh, goodness. halfway over. oh goodness, oh goodness.
> 
> Thank you guys so much for sticking with me so far. And thank you to any new readers who decided to give this story a chance. And thank you to the future readers who decide to read this when it's finally completed, probably gonna be a long while off still but I want to address you guys too! I love you all so much and every read is a hug, every kudos is a long excited talk with a new friend, and every comment is a miniature happy heart attack. *mUAH!* <3
> 
> Another side-note: Badgers are my new nightmare, I grew increasingly more terrified the more facts I found on them and I hope I never run into one in real life. Ever.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai, Ginhi, Stel-LLLLAAAAAAAAA, and mysterious merman dude whose name will be disclosed at a later date.


	14. Conscious Crystal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So many untaught youths are using their gifts for destruction."
> 
> "So many seasoned magic users are lost with no direction."
> 
> "So many would seek our advice to use upon the unwary."
> 
> """ **So we will offer our wisdom only to those who can find us, and offer a chance for others to give their wisdom as well.** """
> 
> -The Council, just before they built The Cave of the Ancients and used the last of their magic and life to turn all that they knew and are into monolithic white crystals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who found out Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card was a thing and lost their mind to inspiration while they marathoned it?
> 
> No, it was me, silly head.
> 
> Also, I realized I separated the parts of this story completely wrong, so we are not halfway done. We are TWO-THIRDS DONE OH MY GOD WHAT??!! WHERE DID THE TIME GO?!?! So, yeah, that is an accurate chapter count up there and once I get these three chapters out (including this one, which should probably be all around the same time because I plan to spam you all with updates) Book 2 will be done! Oh no, you guys, I'm getting emotional again...
> 
> Iwaizumi stans rejoice! There was some concern about him not getting enough love, and I had to bite my tongue (or my fingers, however that works when you're typing and not talking) to not reply to said concerned party because I was in the middle of writing this. Hope you enjoy, you lovely caring person! I was honestly so touched on Iwaizumi's behalf when I got the message, you have no idea. And! For those of you concerned about any of the other boys listed in the "featured characters" above that are not getting enough screen-time, worry not! They all have scenes focused specifically on them in the next book! (I can't wait, you guys, you have no idea, the hYpE!)
> 
> Also, hope ya'll are ready for some _angst!_

You bark out a watery, sardonic laugh. "Figures that's the first thing you say to me, you know, after you _died_."

" _Kid..._ " And she's a crystal now, but she still manages to sound _so_ tired, and that by itself pulls a more genuine laugh out of you.

"I know, I know. You had your reasons." And saving Yevoll had to be the greatest reason. You walk closer and eye her new form with perplexed curiosity. "So. You're a crystal now."

" _Really? I hadn't noticed._ " Drier than Death's Hourglass, this woman, you swear.

You huff a laugh. "Yeah, thought I'd point that out since I have no idea whether or not you can see without eyes."

" _Watch it, scamp. You're only just barely besting me in that respect._ " You laugh at this too, but it comes out a little more forced than you want. " _What'd you do? Face off with a unicorn?_ "

"Nothing nearly so cool, and I should be the one asking you that, truly." You eye the pretty rock with your Mentor trapped inside it.

" _I know they're jerks, but I don't have anything against unicorns._ "

"Stella." You look as unamused as your voice sounds.

The crystal sighs. " _Alright, alright. But aren't you gonna introduce me to your little friends first?_ "

Sheepishness and a small bit of pride sweep over you in turns. "These are my apprentices." You motion to each of them as you introduce them by name.

" _All young men? Well, I suppose you were bound to get interested in relationships sooner or later, just glad I don't have to be around for it._ "

You ignore the blushes and smirks and sputters and scoffs behind you and scowl down at the rock. "Oh my gods, first Kaen and Ginhi, now you? What is with everyone focusing on me being in a relationship?"

" _And taking on apprentices so young?_ " Stella bowls right over your question like it's not there. " _Might not be such a bad idea, with what's going to happen soon,_ " the light teasing has faded completely into somberness.

Abruptly, the playful atmosphere leaves. "What's going to be happening soon?" you ask cautiously. "And Stella, what is all... _this?_ " You gesture around at all the crystals, down at her crystal. "How are you still here, still... alive? Is that the right way to describe this?"

" _Eh... More or less._ "

"But Stella, you-" You cut off to control the wobble in your voice but it shakes anyway. "You destroyed yourself to seal off Death's Hourglass."

" _I did, yeah._ " You take a steadying breath. She's still not coming back then. " _I dissolved my body to put everything I had into keeping those nightmare creatures away from Yevoll and I thought I died. But it turns out I still had some teaching to do, so my consciousness was brought here and I waited for Kaen to tell you about you being the PeaceKeeper and to send you here, which took a lot longer than I expected, to be honest._ "

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Are you talking about that fake thing you told the Elves that one time? That was real?"

The crystal is silent for a moment. " _...So Kaen didn't tell you. How'd you end up here?_ "

"Badger-snake," you answer simply.

"And a way too friendly mermaid," grumps Noya, Tanaka grunting in agreement.

The crystal laughs. " _The Prylp pod is still looking after this place, huh? That's good._ " The other crystals around the room hum in agreement, drawing your attention to flitting around them before being brought back to Stella as she says, " _But that's weird. Kaen was supposed to tell you relatively soon after I died._ "

"Tell me what?" you ask incredulously.

All the other crystals answer in tandem with Stella, " _You are the PeaceKeeper._ "

"Yeah, uh-huh," You nod speculatively with your chin in your hand as you try to pretend that doesn't creep you out. "That's been said a lot, but what does it _mean?_ "

" _It's a prophecy,_ " Stella explains. "'The PeaceKeeper will defeat the one with no regard for magical life and bring harmony to the humans and magical races in the process.'"

Your apprentices are eyeing you and you have no idea what they're thinking but you really don't think you can do all that. Your eyebrows are high on your forehead with your disbelief. "And how do you know this is me?"

" _The PeaceKeeper is said to be a Princess,_ " You freeze, and it's probably your imagination but it feels like one pair of eyes in the group of your apprentices' is heavier on you than the rest. " _Hidden away from the rest of the Country when the rest of her family is either killed,_ " Your hands clench into fists, ears echoing with screams of the past. " _Or scattered. Sound familiar, kid?_ "

"That's not me," you grit out, then yell, "It _can't_ be me!"

" _Kid--_ "

" **No!** " Your apprentices jump and look at you in surprise because you're _screaming_. "Everything burned down around me and they _sent me away!_ To you! And then you _died_ and I was left with nothing but your responsibilities and no one but Kaen!" Silence while you heave in the breath you lost.

"And that was _fine_. I wasn't alone and I had something to do, so I did it. I did the hell out of it, _for you_ ," you choke out, and the crystal shimmers in concern but you barrel on, "And I became the best. And Kaen made sure I didn't die while I did."

The fists your hands are clenched in fall loose and you struggle to breathe. "And then I had that awful dream, that fucking _nightmare,_ " you spit. "And I got scared, but I got help!" You back up until you can feel the aura of your apprentices' magic around you, feel it encompass you comfortingly, and turn your head just enough to either side that you can see them, right there, _they're right there._ "I asked them to help me, to be my apprentices, my support, and they _accepted._ " You smile, eyes teary. "I don't have to fear the future because they promised to help me make a difference by my side." A couple hands reach out to rest on your shoulders and another plops down on your head which lowers to hide your widening smile and get a hold of your tears.

But then you lift your head with a frown and glare down at the little indigo crystal. "...And now you're giving me reason to fear again."

" _(Y/n)..._ "

"No!" you hiss. "You are _not_ foisting another responsibility off on me. _I didn't ask to have magic! You_ were the one to decide to teach me it--!"

" _No, I wasn't,_ " Stella cuts you off calmly.

Your ire stutters to a halt by your confusion. "What?"

" _It was your father's decision, actually._ "

It's hard to breathe again. In a small voice, you ask, "My father...?" unable to say anymore.

Stella takes pity on you and explains, " _You were always supposed to be my apprentice, King Rif arranged for it after your first vision... His death just brought you to me sooner._ "

"...Then my brothers...?"

" _Were heartbroken they couldn't keep you with them, but they had to follow the King's wishes. They had a mind that getting Navoi to be the one to leave you with me would be less painful but they didn't take into account that it would only be less painful for them._ " The crystal's glow dims to match her soft tone of voice. " _They loved you. They still do._ "

"But I've contacted them since then! They never once let on that they wanted to stay with me all that time ago."

" _Did you?_ "

You open your mouth, then close it, shoulders drooping. "...I thought they wanted nothing to do with me."

" _Geez, all this family drama,_ " the crystal mumbles. " _You know, I was raised by a dragon! I didn't have to deal with all this human emotion shit._ "

You huff a laugh. "That actually explains quite a few things."

" _Communication works both ways, kid. Talk to them. Looks like you have some talking to do with your apprentices too, if the looks on their faces are anything to go by._ "

You look behind you, and though they hurriedly look away, you can see the bewilderment and confusion on your apprentices' faces. Aaaaand yup, there's a look of proven-right satisfaction on Akaashi's but he still looks like he has a couple more questions. "Yeah, I do."

" _You should also have a word or five with Kaen,_ " she sounds irritated. " _I told that Shikigami to tell you all about the prophecy when you were ready and if you've been acting as the Protector of Yevoll in my place, then you're more than that. It was only after you knew that you were supposed to come here._ "

"Wait, after? If I wasn't supposed to learn all this from you, why have me come here?"

" _To come get me!_ "

You blink down at the crystal in confusion.

" _This shiny hunk of rock has the last vestiges of my magic that is intertwined with my consciousness. Take it with you. It'll come in handy for sure._ "

"Wait... what? But-" You chuckle a little unsteadily. "I'll still be able to talk to you, right?"

" _...Kid-_ "

"I can still ask you questions, and we can still rib each other--"

" _Kid--_ "

"And you can still criticize my hand placement when I do spells even if you can't lob fireballs at me anymore--"

" _Kid!_ " You force yourself to stop talking. " _I won't be able to speak. It's only because of this cave that I'm able to talk at all._ "

You perk up. "Then if I bring you back--"

" _You know it doesn't work that way, kid. Magic is not an undo button._ "

Indigo starts to blur with the grey of the cave and the white of the monolith crystals as your vision clouds with tears. "But I just got you back."

" _(Y/n), I'm still dead. It's a miracle that I can talk to you like this at all._ "

"You said you still had stuff to teach me..."

" _And I will. As long as you take this crystal with you._ "

You sniff.

She groans uncomfortably. " _Kid!_ " She always did hate tears. " _It's not like I'm gonna be completely gone. You're taking my consciousness with you. Even if I can't respond, if you talk to me, I can hear you._ "

"...I'll never hear  _you_ again."

You and the crystal are silent as tears stream down your face.

" _Then remember me saying this if nothing else; You're an extraordinary young woman, (Y/n). I'm proud to have been your Mentor._ "

You sob. "I'm honored that I was your apprentice."

The crystal twinkles happily as you step towards it but you pause, thinking. "Stella?"

" _Yeah, kid?_ "

"Would you... Is it... Can I, um..." Gods, how do you ask this?

But Stella seems to understand, if the amused laughter is anything to go by. " _Sure, kid. This'll be the first lesson I get to watch you teach._ "

You smile down at the crystal and turn to meet gazes with Iwaizumi, whose eyes go wide when your one lands on him. "Whoa, what?"

Laughing, you wave him over. "C'mon,  _Iwa-chan_ ," you hum teasingly. "You're gonna extract my teacher from the ground."

You almost think he's going to try to refuse, but after a moment where his face twists into something like pained reluctance, he approaches obediently. "So... what do I do?"

You move to one side of the crystal and lower yourself to the ground, patting the stone to the side of you. "Kneel with me." He walks over but sits across from you instead. You lift a brow but shrug. "That works too. Okay," You lean your weight back on the heels of your feet and level them with your shins, pressing your palms into the stone on either side of you. "First, I want you to take a deep, relaxing breath." When he closes his eyes to follow your instructions, you tell him, "I know you've worked with stone before so that'll make this easier but I would've preferred to start you off with actual earth."

He opens his eyes and raises an eyebrow. "Earth?"

"Yeah, you know, dirt."

Both eyebrows go up. "I can control that too?"

"There's no 'too' about it. Stone's just superpacked dirt anyway, all you're doing is moving denser quantities of it."

"Thankfully I have experience moving dense things." He throws a pointed mocking gaze at Oikawa and you huff a laugh at the offended whine of his name the other boy gives.

You hum as you eye the stone around Stella's crystal. "The only difference here is that you're trying to convince what you're moving that it's really not dense at all."

"No difference at all then," he says, earning poignant silence from the other side of the room. "But that might be a little harder to do with actual  _stone_."

"Perhaps, but you have the means." You wiggle your fingers on the ground pointedly and Iwaizumi mirrors your position. "Calm your mind," He closes his eyes and you light up yours, grey steady and unmoving in front of you. "Good. Feel the stone underneath your hands. Solid, right?" He nods with furrowed brows, his fingers sliding across it. "But it vibrates."

Iwaizumi's brows furrow further and you wait patiently until he says, "I feel it. There's these almost unnoticeable bounces..."

"Good! That's good. The earth under us, in whatever form it takes, is solid but it's always moving. The only time it stops is when it can no longer support life." You smile, the sound of it leaking into your voice. "And since it's always moving anyway, it just takes a little push to have it move how you want."

You look down at Iwaizumi's hands. Where his fingers had drifted over the stone there are now tiny grey sparks, left behind from where he sensed the vibration. "Try it."

His eyes open to look at you in surprise, knocked out of his small trance. "What?"

"Try to move it," You nod encouragingly. "Start off with the stone just beneath your fingers." Still unsure, he closes his eyes and tries. "Curl your hands into it like it's mud."

" _Mud?_ " he asks incredulously, disbelievingly. "But it's stone--"

"Oh my gods, are you seriously this stubborn? Just  _try it_."

To the echoing chuckles of Oikawa and Stella that harmonize with your apprentices' and a few of the other crystals', he does and nearly ends up breaking his fingers when he keeps trying to dig in even though it remains solid, grey humming frustratedly all the way up his arms.

"Okay, stop! Stop," You blink away the glow from your eye and pull his hands up from the ground to hold them in yours. "Look at me," you prompt when he doesn't immediately open his eyes. You squeeze his hands when brown floods your vision. "You're thinking too much, just relax. Sink your fingers into the ground without expecting them to meet resistance because  _they won't._ Just let it happen." You gently place his hands back on the ground and put yours on top of them. Blushing, Iwaizumi looks down at your hands on his before letting his eyes fall closed.

"Now  _dig._ "

He does, and the stone parts for his fingers like mud, just as you'd said, leaving gouges in the rock like he'd simply molded clay.

You let out a pleased hum at the sight. "See? Nothin' to it."

Iwaizumi opens his eyes and sucks in a sharp breath when he sees what he's done. "Whoa..."

"Whoa, indeed." You nod with a big smile. "Now, let's try that again with your eyes open this time."

He does, and under the force of reality that his stare brings, the stone moves more like dried clay with some of the smaller bits breaking off into pebbles. "Holy shit, that is so cool," he breathes, eyes flicking back and forth from his fingers and the ground.

"Yeah! Go Iwa-chan!" cheers Oikawa, pumping his fist in the air. "We're gonna beat the rest of these losers with some  _real_ magic--"

"Shut up, Oikawa," you and Iwaizumi say in unison.

"And there's nothing you guys have to 'beat' each other at anyway," you continue, motioning for Iwaizumi to move the stone a couple more times. "You're all supposed to be working together."

"Ah, but (Y/n)-chan," Oikawa smirks charmingly. "The way to win your heart is through a tough competitio--"

"My heart?" you interrupt bewilderedly, moving your attention from Iwaizumi, who's sighing tiredly at his friend, to turn concerned eyes on Oikawa. "Why would you need my heart? The only spells that require a human heart are part of the forbidden works and I am  _not_ okay with you guys having anything to do with that."

There's a long silence, even the sound of grating stone ceasing, as all your apprentices stare at you.

Stella starts cackling. " _You went from incorrigible flirt to completely oblivious!_ "

"I am  _not_ oblivious," you say with heavy offense. "I know the dangers of the forbidden works perfectly well!" Stella cackles harder and you start to pout. "And you know I hate being called a flirt. People are pretty and it makes them happy when I tell them that, it's not my fault that they just  _assume_ I want to date them from that."

Kuroo squints, a corner of his mouth quirking up. "I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you do when you want to date someone."

"Okay, fine. But it's not what  _I_ do. I give compliments because it makes others happy and it's polite, if I wanted to let someone know I wanted to date them, I would..."

Your apprentices listen very closely.

"Actually, I don't know. I've never really wanted to date someone before."

There are various small noises of disappointment from the boys that you obliviously don't hear. Stella is still laughing.

Your gaze drops from its pondering wander down to the crystal with a twitch of your eye. "You know, maybe you not being able to speak is a good thing."

" _You'll miss my angelic voice after a while._ "

"You have a smoker's voice if anything, ya goat." You don't say anything about not missing it though, and if Stella notices she doesn't point it out.

By now the stone that Iwaizumi moves follows his silents commands a lot easier, flowing like sand, to the point where he starts making idle doodles in it, and when you see them actually retain their shape instead of moving back to fill the cracks, you know he's ready.

"Iwaizumi," He guiltily starts away from his doodling and you smile a bit. "Without trying to move it, put your hands on the crystal."

Relieved you're not chewing him out for messing around, he remembers as well as the rest of your apprentices how harsh you were when you were an old woman, he does as you said. The moment his skin makes contact a silent hum buzzes up his fingers into his hands and he can immediately tell the difference between the stone in the cave and the crystal. It's... it's  _alive_ with magic and that shouldn't really surprise him because he heard this thing talking, for gods' sakes, but there's knowing and then there's  _feeling it with his own two hands._ It's amazing.

You see Iwaizumi's awe on his face and smile. "Easy to tell the difference, right?"

"Yeah," he breathes, still in awe.

"Good. So..." You give the crystal one last long look. "...So all you have to do is dig her out." You reach out and touch the crystal with one finger, resonating its magic,  _her_ magic, with your own, making the difference between the two stones even more apparent. "Just be sure to only will the stone to move and not the crystal."

At your somber tone, Iwaizumi looks up and sees just how despondent you are as you brush the crystal with your fingertips and he realizes the significance of you asking him to do this. You're asking him to take the memory of one of your loved ones, the one who  _raised_ you, into his hands. You're trusting him to safely transfer all that's left of your Mentor, to you. And you could've done all this yourself, without any risk that he would maybe mess up, but you asked him to anyway.

Initially, Iwaizumi agreed because you had looked up and asked with this small sad smile and tears in your eye and he  _really_ does not like it when girls cry, so he did it to make you feel better. Now, though... Now he's honored to have been trusted with this, because he knows how much this means to you.

Iwaizumi pushes his fingers into the stone around the crystal, but before he can start digging the crystal glows faintly and calls out, " _Wait._ "

He does, and you and your apprentices give the crystal all of your attention.

" _(Y/n),_ " You sit up straighter, eye riveted to the crystal. " _Make sure you talk to Kaen about them keeping this from you, I gave them a clear command to and yet they didn't._ " You nod obediently, expression hard. You plan to have quite a few words with them, there's no doubt about that. " _And, kid? I never got to tell you before I died, but I love you._ "

A sob pulls itself from your chest with no warning. "I love you too, Stella."

" _And you boys,_ " Your apprentices suddenly feel like a hard look is being directed at all of them simultaneously as the crystal glitters warningly. " _You take care of my kid. I'll be_ watching." They all nod seriously, a few Adam's apples bobbing on gulps.

" _Alright,_ " The crystal brightens and dims in time with Stella's sigh. " _Dig away._ "

Iwaizumi digs, you keeping a couple fingers pressed to the crystal to feed it pulses of magic when he gets particularly close to it and to... to be there for Stella. She said she was already dead but it feels like you're losing her all over again. But this time, this time you can be there for her.

Iwaizumi digs six inches into the stone before he feels the end of Stella's crystal, and after a questioning look to you that you answer with a jerky nod, he carefully scoops her out of the ground. As soon as the crystal loses contact with the stone its everpresent glow dims until it looks like a run-of-the-mill crystal and it feels to you like the cave has lost a significant amount of brightness because of it.

When Iwaizumi puts the crystal in your hands though, you're reassured by the feel of magic within it, just as strong as before. Stella is still with you.

You sit there and hug the crystal tight to your chest in silence for a few long minutes and you're grateful for your apprentices' respectful quiet.

After a moment you stand, and Iwaizumi stands with you, "So... what do we do now?" he asks hesitantly.

"Now I need to go talk to my Shikigami."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaen, you got some 'splainin' to do.
> 
> I was playing Symphony by Clean Bandit when Iwaizumi was removing Stella's crystal and I made myself cry :'(
> 
> There's a ton of emotion in this last part of this book, so I split up the chapters so they have one revelation (approximately) each. (One has two but it's not so much a big revelation as a revelation of feelings and motivations.) One down, two to go! (Oh, and they all have angst. There is no escape.)
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai, Ginhi, Stel-LLLLAAAAAAAAA, and mysterious merman dude whose name will be disclosed at a later date.


	15. Secretive Shikigami

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Tell her about the prophecy once she's ready. Once you think _that time_ is imminent... send her to the Cave of the Ancients, she'll find any wisdom she needs there, hopefully. Take care of her for me, will you? Like she's your own cub."
> 
> -Stella's last words to Kaen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will people learn that secrets are never helpful? They are very useful as plot points, though...

It took several minutes of you splashing and yelling  _into_ the cave's pool, literally into, you had to stick your head underwater and then start screaming nonsense, to draw the merman back to you so you could bum a tow back out. Even with your and Oikawa's combined abilities with water, it would be difficult to get everyone out seeing as you have practically no magic reserves left and Oikawa doesn't know how to make water breathable yet. Luckily, he brings back some Sea Lung, which you barbecue promptly with high heat before putting it anywhere near your mouth, answering protests of unfairness with the explanation that you don't need as long to breathe underwater so cooking and actually chewing the Sea Lung is fine.

You tell your apprentices to wait for you in the cave and swim through the tunnel and out from under the waterfall with the merman to see if the badger-snake has left. Much to your fortune, it has, so you swim back to start ferrying your apprentices to shore.

Halfway into the tunnel, the merman pauses in his swimming, pulling you to a stop as well, and bubbles solemnly, "You should see this."

A very small light in your hand gives you just enough visibility in the darkness to see the expansive, swirling images on the tunnel's walls. Magical creatures of every kind and type with huge smiles on their faces bow to a humanoid figure with a very familiar sassy witch hat. Eye wide, you're pulled further along by the merman, revealing another scene with the hatted humanoid engaged in battle with hauntingly familiar eyes surrounded by a malignant miasma. Even further is that same humanoid but this time wearing a crown that you can swear you've seen before and a warm smile as she holds out her hands, one to each side, where a magical creature and a human respectively stand and shake each other's hands.

The merman pulls you up to one of the depictions of the humanoid figure, the one where she stands between the magical creature and human, and runs a scaled hand over her image with bright eyes. "The PeaceKeeper," You whip your head from the image to him and find happy, grateful eyes already on you. "The bridge between magical creatures and humans." His hand leaves the image to capture the one he isn't already holding and gives both of them a squeeze. "You."

You heard all this from Stella, but this... really puts it into perspective for you. Ancient underwater cave etchings, so old aquatic plant life has smoothed over sharp edges, tend to do that. You're unable to say a word until you're back in the cave, where your apprentices have started a Sea Lung barbecue party over the head of a very miffed looking Hinata, and the sight prompts a startled laugh from you.

Once you're all out of the cave, you start the long, wary trek back to the Keep, where Yai, Ginhi, and Kaen welcome you back with smiling faces that soon turn concerned when they see how ragged you all are.

Kaen approaches you first. "(Y/n), what happened? You--" And then they see the indigo crystal cradled gently in your hands. "Where did you get that?"

"You know damn well where I got it, Kaen," you utter darkly, and then raise your voice to be heard by everyone else, "Let's all head inside."

You stalk into the Keep and your apprentices follow behind you silently, cowed by the veiled hostility they can hear in your voice despite your trying to keep it from rising. After a quick moment of dread, Kaen follows as well, Ginhi and Yai trailing stoically behind them.

~

You pace back and forth in front of the long side of the dining table, eye dark and swirling with a thousand thoughts to be said as you clutch Stella's crystal to your chest. Your apprentices' and the Shikigamis' eyes follow you quietly back and forth for a few long intensely awkward silent minutes. No food or drink has been offered or asked for, so the only thing your spectators can occupy themselves with is watching you work yourself up into a storm of anger.

Your bare foot slaps down on the wooden floor of the kitchen in one last step before you stop. While your apprentices had left to change and came back with regular clothes a while ago, you had remained in your swimwear in favor of picking the exact words to get your poignant displeasure across. You're still mildly damp because of that but this doesn't discourage you, you hadn't even really noticed it until you noticed your bare feet.

You move Stella's crystal away from your chest to stare down at it in sadness and frustration. You flick your eye up from it to Kaen, single eye taking turns piercing into both of theirs. Most of your anger has faded away into betrayed disappointment and you hope how much they've hurt you shows in your eye. From their pinched expression you're guessing it does.

"Why," is your only demand. It's obvious by now that you know, if how you were seething wasn't enough of a clue than the indigo crystal in your hands definitely is, and that Stella told you Kaen kept it from you when they weren't supposed to. You just wanted to know  _why._ Why would they keep something like this, closure with Stella, a memento of hers, from you.

Kaen can't look you in the eye anymore and drops their gaze down to their clasped hands on the table. "You weren't ready."

" _Weren't ready?_ " you scoff. "Ready for what?"

"For the responsibility--"

"Oh really?" you cut them off. "Because Stella seemed to think I was."

" _Stella was not here when you broke down!_ " Kaen snaps. You blink at them in surprise while they get themselves under control. "You were just fifteen when she  _chose_ to sacrifice herself like that. Just this tiny little thing not even two decades old," Kaen chokes, tears welling up. "And you wouldn't eat or sleep or smile for anything. The bags under your eyes were as deep as the concaves to your ribs. You were  _dying_ right in front of me."

"And you didn't think that telling me there was a piece of Stella  _right here in this forest_ would have helped me?!" you bite.

"You weren't ready then."

"Then?" you latch onto, narrowing your eye. "So you admit at some point I was ready and you  _still_ didn't tell me?!"

Kaen shakes their head softly, still not meeting your eye, and continues, "And then Stella's pools started ringing, from in and outside the borders of the Country. She laid the groundwork for you, you know," They finally work up enough nerve to look at you. "She started tentative negotiations with the magical community to get them used to magic-users and learned as much as she could about their customs so she could teach them to you," They huff a laugh, "Never stopped to think that you would end up learning more if you were accepted by the creatures themselves, she just wanted to give you every advantage."

You're silent as you look down again at the crystal.

Kaen sighs and looks back at their hands. "And then you just... lost yourself in her work. Picking up where she left off like it was the natural order of things. It took a while, for me to get you to take care of yourself again, but when you did and you smiled at me for some brew that you finally managed to get just right, I-" Kaen sucks in a shaky breath. "I couldn't. Couldn't drag you back to that time when you starved and tortured yourself instead of sleeping, couldn't subject you into losing Stella all over again, couldn't-" Kaen wheezes, tears streaming down their face. " _Couldn't handle seeing you like that again._ "

"You had no right," you choke out, tears streaming down your face too. The time after Stella's death... was hard, and hearing Kaen talk about it brought back painful memories. And it hurt to hear just how much Kaen suffered when you did and you remember the relief of finding a purpose after Stella was gone, but despite all that, "You had no right to keep this, to keep  _her_ ," you sob, clutching Stella's crystal back to your chest, "From me! There is no excuse that will make that okay."

Kaen clenches their hands as tears roll from their cheeks to plop down on them and you cry silently into Stella's crystal.

And then suddenly you can't stand the thought of looking up and seeing them. " _Kuraya no Akahibana,_ " you call their true name, "You are to return to your scroll until I call for you."

You don't look up until the red flash has come and gone so you don't see the hurt grimace Kaen's expression changes to with that order.

"(Y/n)," Yai tries to reason, but you shake your head sharply, holding up a hand.

"Don't," you reaffirm. "They couldn't then, so I can't now."

The Shikigami subsides with a small frown.

A thought hits you then. "Did you two know?" They look to each other silently and that's answer enough. "You did. You knew and didn't tell me either."

"We wanted to but Kaen warned us against it," Ginhi informs bluntly. "They said Stella tasked them with it so they should be the one to inform you, if at all." His stoic mien softens into a frown. "I'm sorry, (Y/n)."

You sigh heavily and sit down in Kaen's empty chair, cradling your face in one hand while the other has a desperate clutch on the crystal. "Do either of you two know about this PeaceKeeper business then?"

Silence.

You look up. Both Shikigami won't meet your eye. You scowl. "No. We're not doing this shit again, you will tell me and that  _is an order._ "

"I'm not yours to order," Ginhi quickly bows out of answering, and Kenma looks panicked at the prospect of you possibly ordering him to order Ginhi, but you just level a hard glare at Yai.

He quivers under your stare. "Kaen said--"

"Kaen is not your contract holder, I am." He flinches and you frown softly. You gentle your voice, "Please, Yai. I'm done being kept in the dark."

Yai swallows heavily but finally looks at you. " _She will be raised in luxury but visions of atrocities will haunt her,_ " he starts slowly, and your breath catches in your throat at his tone, like he's reciting a sacred text from heart but... it's about you. You can tell just from the first sentence and your certainty of it grows with every word. " _Tragedy will rip her from a life she'll barely remember and these experiences will give her understanding of others' pain and strife. She will be humble but not naive and look at all beings equally when she extends to them a helping hand. She will unite the magical with the non-magical and battle her greatest fear, a threat to life as it is known, one with no regard for magical beings and outright disdain for any others, to bring them together in harmony. Princess of a once great kingdom now split into four powers, she will wear the mantle of Protector as she fights to keep the peace._ " Yai levels you with a placid stare as you absorb his words. "So said it was, and so it was said, the oral Legend of The PeaceKeeper."

Your eye snaps to him. "Oral Legend?"

"One had to be made to be passed down and around through all generations and all magical races so they would know the PeaceKeeper when they saw her as the written Legend is hidden in a place where only the PeaceKeeper herself and those who guard it will ever know."

Your breath punches out of you as you remember growth-covered images. "The tunnel..."

Yai neither confirms nor denies. "The oral Legend is just as true as the written one as it was told to the very first CaveWatcher while it was being inscribed and they were tasked with making sure the Legend stayed true throughout the ages."

You stand up from the table, a hand on your head. "I'm turning in for the night." You need to process this. This ' _Legend_ ', your entire life, basically, has been passed around like some hero's story at bedtime all these years- however long it took for life to grow on that tunnel wall and the edges of the carvings to go smooth. Your horror at visions, running frantically through fire and choking on smoke as the people you knew all your life scream in the throes of death, you shouldering a responsibility with a vacant position to deal with the loss of a loved one, and you, supposedly, defeating some threat to life and uniting two different groups of people that pretty much contemn each other in harmony while ' _keeping the peace_ '. Your past, present, and future, all told cheerfully around a hearth, for... what? Hope? While you have to suffer through and agonize about it anxiously. It's a lot to process.

But before you can, a hand catches your wrist before you can take two full steps towards your room. "Not so fast,  _Princess,_ " you turn and meet Kuroo's oddly serious eyes. "We're tired of being kept in the dark too." He gestures behind him to his other fellow apprentices. Their eyes on you are a mix of concerned and expectant, wanting an explanation. "I think it's about time we all talked."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Two down, one to go...
> 
> To clarify, Kaen is a Shikigami from the spirit plane, not one that was birthed, and so is however many thousands of millennia old. That's why, with only your 17 years of life, you're still just a baby to them. And Kaen is the second oldest of all your Shikigami, the oldest being Koku, who was mentioned very briefly in chapter 13, so since they have seniority over those active Ginhi and Yai had to listen to them.
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai, Ginhi, Stel-LLLLAAAAAAAAA, and mysterious merman dude whose name will be disclosed at a later date.


	16. Painful Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't think anything will ever be as scary as those awful flames reflected in Mother's prized doorknobs...
> 
> -From the Diary of a young Sorceress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Sometimes tears can hurt more than flames...

Thankfully, they let you retreat to change and dry off, only after you reluctantly promise to come back and explain, and you re-enter the kitchen in pajamas (because you  _know_ you're going to bed straight after this) with the book on the history of Karasuno in your hand. You notice Akaashi perk up when he sees it.

You sit down in Kaen's chair and the Shikigamis sit close to you on either side, offering comfort. They probably don't know all the details but they know most of it and how much it hurts you to think about even now from Kaen and they're offering you support in their stead.

You stare down at the gilt letters of Karasuno's name with a blank eye.

"Karasuno," it comes out strained and you don't even try to hide it because it would be useless, "was considered the greatest Kingdom by some, and it was all thanks to its last reigning King, King Rif Kar. The twelfth monarch of Karasuno."

You crack open the old book and your apprentices are silent as they listen and watch you. Yai lays a bracing hand on your shoulder as the cover of the book hits the table, a great deal of its contents passed over in favor of the last section in the sizable tome. The one that will remain forever incomplete with the death of the scholars who recorded the history of the Kingdom they died with.

You breeze through the pages with King Rif's earlier exploits, having read them countless times to the point of knowing them by heart. "I could tell all of you about the groundbreaking laws he made, how he abolished taxes completely, how he brought about a time of, if not absolute peace, then a time without war, but it would all boil down to the same thing. King Rif was a kind ruler who cared deeply for all his subjects; rich, poor, or average; magical, non-magical, hybrids, or magic-users; and he did his best to make sure everyone was treated fairly and equally." You pause when you come to a page depicting Karasuno's castle, gleaming obsidian towers with golden doors inlaid with citrine, and run your fingers over it wistfully.

Noya notices the movement of your fingers, and perks up when he sees the picture. "Hey, isn't that King Din's castle?"

You smile half-heartedly. "Yes, it is." You idly scratch below the bandages on your missing eye. You had changed your wrappings, with a bit more difficulty than when Kaen helped you but you persevered, so it must be the lingering salt water on your skin that's itching. "King Rif had two sons. The first with Lady Gotiph, the Royal Concubine, and the second with Queen Yasil."

"So, King Din is...?" Kageyama trails off, thinking very hard.

"Children conceived with a Royal Concubine are just as legitimate as those born of the King and Queen," you inform. "Lady Gotiph's son was just as much a Prince as Queen Yasil's, but he chose to give up the crown to his younger brother, Din, in favor of other pursuits."

"So, King Din is King Rif's son!" Suga exclaims, and you nod.

There are noises of amazement from Hinata and Noya.

"King Rif," you sigh tiredly, "Also had... a daughter."

Your apprentices who are quick on the uptake, or just plain already guessed, snap their eyes to you and gape a little in astonishment as you press your lips together and look down at the picture of your home.

You run your fingers over the arch of the main door. "He didn't want anything to do with things so opulent as gold, you know... My father. Said it would be of better use in the hands of the people. But they," You smile sadly. "The citizens said such a great King should rightly have some outward sign of status so Karasuno wasn't the only Kingdom to know their ruler was the best, and they kept leaving sacks of money to be donated to renovating the castle with some kind of grand expenditure and he finally gave up and got the doors covered in gold." You make your voice go deep and gruff but with an audible pout. " _This way the people still get to use their money in some way._ Mother ended up liking the color so much she had all the doorknobs etched with gold as well." Tears well up in your eye. "She and Aunt Gotiph would squabble over the cheapest way to include it in her outfits." You choke out a watery laugh, swiping away an escaped tear. "I'm just glad Aunt Gotiph had a fondness for copper instead of gold so they didn't fight over who would have the Royal tailors inlay their outfit with gold first." You sob and put your hands over your face to collect yourself.

Yai soothingly rubs your back and Ginhi lays a comforting hand on your shoulder.

There's a somber silence. With the amount of personal knowledge you just shared about the Royal Family, knowledge that's obviously painful for you to share, it's achingly obvious now who King Rif's daughter is.

"...(Y/n)..." Kuroo softly murmurs, probably to tell you you don't have to say anymore but you cut off any attempt of his to say so by continuing.

"It was after I started having the dreams and knew that I could help people with them. After I figured out what they meant,  _but I never saw it coming._ I've always wondered if that was because nothing I could do would've helped or if it was because the dreams never warn me of danger to myself, I mean," You gesture. "I know it's at least  _part_ of the latter, because even if I'm not warned with a dream I do get this... this  _dread_ when something awful is gonna hurt me. And I got that feeling that day, that morning, but I had no idea what it was because that was the first time I had it. And it was horrible," You shake your head. "I haven't had a dread as bad as that first one since... Since..." You touch lightly under your missing eye but quickly move your hand away from it. "Well, anyway. The dread was so bad that I was a little barnacle to whoever was nearest at the time. Mother, Father, my brothers, the maids, the guards, the cooks. It just felt like..." You stare blankly in front of you. "Like everyone near me was just going to disappear. And that's terrifying, for a seven year old."

"And then..." Your voice goes hollow. "And then suddenly there was smoke  _everywhere._ And people were yelling and banging on doors that wouldn't open for anything and then there were flames no matter where I looked and then the yelling turned into  _screaming._ " You quiver under the force of your memories. "All I could do was run. All over the castle. Joining the screams with my own for my family."

You take a deep wheezing breath. "Every lungful of air burned but the fire never touched me. And then..." Your brow furrows. "I think my brothers found me and got me out, I... I don't remember." You frown. "There was a lot of 'grown up talk' after that that they tried to hide from me. They said it was an unfortunate accident and that-" You sob. "That the Royal Polyamors were dead. My brothers and I were the only ones who survived the fire."

Another long tear-filled silence.

"The next thing I knew, we were being sent all over the place," you gasp. "I have no idea where my brothers went, but I was placed in Stella's care then and my entire existence was hidden from all record. I lost any kind of connection to my family that day, all because I couldn't see what was about to happen when it was right in front of my face!" You slam your hands down onto the table on either side of the book and hiss out a pained breath through your teeth. Not at the sting in your palms, but the pain of losing loved ones over such a stupid mistake...

You sob and lay your head on the history tome, hugging your only window into your past life closer to you as your tears spill onto its pages.

You suck in a sharp breath as you feel a hand on your shoulder and lift your head to meet kind brown eyes. Daichi had stood from his seat to reach out to you. "None of that was your fault," he tells you, and you look between his eyes in confusion, brow furrowing. He frowns, "The fact that you lost your parents and people dear to you is terrible, but you had no way of controlling it. You had no warning, no way to prevent it because it was a horribly unfortunate accident. Nobody could have predicted it."

The sound of you smacking away his hand is loud and draws more than a few gasps from around you.

You glare at him with a heartbroken eye. "It still doesn't change the fact that they're gone now and that all of this _was,_ apparently, predicted long ago so no matter what I did that day nothing would've changed." You glare down at the history of Karasuno and slam it closed. "No matter how much you struggle, you can't change fate."

You rise from the table, brushing off Yai and Ginhi's attempts to reach out to you. "I'm going to bed. You all should too." You turn with the history tome in hand and head for the living room. "Tomorrow we head off to Yevoll."

**-So said it was, and so it was said.-**

 

**End of Book 2**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that makes three! I wanted to post all these the same time I put up the first chapter of Book three but it's starting to look like that's gonna take a while because I'm _planning_ , very loosely planning so don't quote me on this, to have every chapter of Book three be super long and that would make you guys have to wait while I try to finish it and I decided to just go ahead and put you guys out of your cliffhanger misery and give you some sort of closure, so! See you all again in BOOK THREE~!!!!
> 
> Oh, and anybody else see that gigantic hint that polyamory is widely accepted here and even practiced by the Royal families? No? Well, here: POLYAMORY IS WIDELY ACCEPTED HERE AND IS EVEN PRACTICED BY THE ROYAL FAMILIES.
> 
> Now, _gee_ , doesn't that just make you wonder why I specifically included that in there...?
> 
> And remember, the magic is always there, you only have to look for it. :)
> 
> Images and characters of Haikyuu do not belong to me, they belong to Haruichi Furudate and the respective artists who I will be happy to give credit to should they reach out to me.
> 
> The Kings and some of the creatures our heroes come across do belong to me, along with the map of Yevoll and Solidarity, Mashiro Kim, my fabulous little gossip, Kaen, Yai, Ginhi, Stel-LLLLAAAAAAAAA, and mysterious merman dude whose name will be disclosed at a later date.


End file.
